What Do We Do With a Positive Troponin Test?

Hi Stradivarius,

The first thing that you need to know is that very rarely, people who have a heart attack will have normal troponin concentrations, and some people with increased troponin concentrations have no apparent heart injury. In these cases, this test isn't reliable.

This test isn't supposed to be used by itself in order to diagnose or rule out a heart attack. If it turned out positive, you will have to do additional tests in order to know for sure and to know exactly what is happening with your heart. A physical exam and ECG are also important to do, and the doctor will need to know your whole clinical history.

Hey you two. What is going on?

Look, a troponin test measures the levels of troponin T or troponin I proteins in your blood. These proteins are released when the heart muscle has been damage and this can occurs when you are having the heart attack. The more damage is to the heart, the greater the amount of troponin T and I will be in your blood.

But unfortunately this is all I do know about this. I don’t know what you can do with a positive troponin test because I remember when my cousin had this positive test and doctors told her that everything is going to be ok.

Hey everyone.

Increased troponin levels should not be used by themselves to diagnose or rule out a heart attack. You need to know that a physical exam, clinical history and even EKG are really, but really important. You and your health care provider can also see whether the troponin levels are the same or they show a rise over several hours.

It is very rare that people who have heart attack will have normal troponin concentrations and some people with increased troponin concentrations have no apparent heart injuries.

So, what exactly you need to do when the test is positive, your doctor will tell you more about this. Good luck.

Hey everyone.

I just can imagine how sharp that pain was, because chest pain is usually sharp and I am sure that you were scared a lot during this discomfort.

In this case EKG is really important and it should reveal a lot of things and heart issues in your case. I am sure that with proper diagnose your doctor will know how to behave and what treatment to set for you.

You need to tell him your whole history of disease, what happened before, do you had any heart issues and according to that he will know what to do.

Hey there. You really need to know that troponin T can be a very sensitive test and because of it you can expect to have false positive result. It can turn to be positive from very minimal stimuli and there are some people who actually have chronically elevated values that are totally healthy. If you ask me, one test that is positive doesn’t have to mean anything. Why? Because it can be very sensitive to slight variations in kidney functions as well. Now you need to see with your doctor should you do another test or not.
Anyway, good luck.

Hi everyone,

Stradivarius, I would suggest to you that you go and do some other tests that could show heart problems, like ECG for example.

Troponin test is totally unreliable because it shows false results really often. But anyway, since it turned out positive, it was good for you, since it's going to make you do some additional tests and see if there's anything wrong with your heart for real. It's better that it turned out positive, rather than negative. This way you are going to check this out and know for sure, otherwise, you would trust that there's nothing wrong and just leave it be like that.