Cardiac ischemia in patients with septic shock randomized to vasopressin or norepinephrine

Table 3 Baseline characteristics and outcomes of patients with and without elevations in serum troponin

	Troponin levels (N= 120)^a
Variable	Normal (n = 72)	Weakly positive^b (n = 30)	Highly positive^b (n = 18)	P value
Age, years	62.7 (51.1, 72.6)	68.4 (47.8, 77.8)	63.2 (50.0, 73.4)	0.378
Male, n (%)	51 (71)	22 (73)	12 (67)	0.920
Surgical patient, n (%)	34 (47)	8 (27)	7 (39)	0.152
APACHE II	27.5 (7.6)	29.7 (6.6)	31.7 (8.6)	0.153
Preexisting conditions, n (%)
Ischemic heart disease	6 (8)	8 (27)	3 (17)	0.041
Diabetes	14 (19)	9 (30)	3 (17)	0.469
Corticosteroid use	8 (11)	7 (23)	2 (11)	0.269
New organ failure at randomization, n (%)
Respiratory	66 (92)	25 (83)	16 (89)	0.406
Renal	49 (68)	21 (70)	14 (78)	0.781
Hematology/coagulation	17 (24)	8 (27)	7 (39)	0.428
Neurologic	20 (28)	14 (47)	5 (28)	0.173
Clinical MI,^c n (%)	0 (0)	2 (7)	3 (17)	0.004
28-day mortality,^d n (%)	30 (42)	12 (41)	8 (44)	1.0
90-day mortality,^d n (%)	40 (56)	14 (48)	8 (44)	0.612

Among 120 patients, the baseline characteristics and outcomes of patients with or without elevated serum troponin. Age is presented as median and first and third quartiles. APACHE II is presented as mean and standard deviation. P value is based on the Fisher Exact test or Wilcoxon rank-sum test. ^aOne patient had no troponin data. ^bSee Table 1 for definitions of weakly positive and highly positive troponin levels. Patients were categorized based on ever having highly positive or weakly positive troponin. ^cMI, myocardial infarction. At each site, the local investigator independently assessed in real time whether the patient met clinical criteria for myocardial infarction. ^dOutcome of one patient in the vasopressin group was unknown and excluded from the calculation.

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