(1) High-sensitivity cardiac troponin T and I are less accurate prognostic markers than amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in patients with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome.

The 360 patients in the study were followed for a median of eight years, and 51 died during the follow-up period. NT-proBNP were better at identifying patients at risk of all-cause death, cardiovascular death and a composite end-point of cardiovascular death and hospitalizations due to heart failure or acute myocardial infarction.

(2)  Mechanical dispersion is a better prognostic echocardiographic marker than global longitudinal strain and ejection fraction in patients with stable coronary artery disease. However, NT-proBNP is an even better prognostic marker than all the echocardiographic measures.

This study included 160 patients one year after coronary revascularization. Over the next 8.4 years, 14 of them died and another 15 were hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction or heart failure. Global longitudinal strain and mechanical dispersion correlated with high-sensitivity troponin I and NT-proBNP levels, while ejection fraction did not.

(3) In a general middle-aged population, increased mechanical dispersion is associated with established cardiovascular risk factors. The study consists of 2529 men and women born in 1950 and living in Akershus, the ACE 1950-study. Those with mechanical dispersion values greater than the median were more likely to have coronary artery disease, hypertension, obesity and diabetes.

Even after including echocardiographic measures in the multivariable model, mechanical dispersion was associated with coronary artery disease and hypertension. Systolic and diastolic dysfunction were also linked to increasing mechanical dispersion.