In patients with NSTE-ACS and elevated cardiac troponin T levels, an early invasive strategy has no benefit over a selective invasive strategy in reducing the 10-year composite outcome of death or spontaneous MI, and a selective invasive strategy may be a viable option in selected patients.

Troponin I (cTnI) is a biomarker of myocardial injury with implications for clinical outcomes. However, other contributing factors that could affect outcomes have not been uniformly considered in pediatric studies. We tested the hypothesis that there is an association between admission serum cTnI and outcomes in critically ill children taking into account the magnitude of the acute systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), serum lactate concentrations, and nutritional status of the patient. Second, we tested for potential factors associated with elevated serum cTnI. This was a prospective cohort study in 104 children (median age: 21.3 months) consecutively admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of a teaching hospital with SIRS and without previous chronic diseases. Primary outcome variables were PICU-free days, ventilator-free days, and 30-day mortality. Exposure variables: serum cTnI concentration on admission, revised pediatric index of mortality (PIM2), pediatric logistic organ dysfunction (PELOD-2), hypotensive shock, C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, and serum lactate on admission, and malnutrition. Elevated cTnI (>0.01 μg/L) was observed in 24% of patients, which was associated with the reduction of ventilator-free days (β coefficient = − 4.97; 95% confidence interval [CI]: −8.03; −1.91) and PICU-free days (β coefficient = − 5.76; 95% CI: −8.97; −2.55); all patients who died had elevated serum cTnI. The increase of 0.1 μg/L in cTnI concentration resulted in an elevation of 2 points in the oxygenation index (β coefficient = 2.0; 95% CI: 1.22; 2.78, p < 0.001). The PIM2 score, hypotensive shock in the first 24 hours, and serum lactate were independently associated with elevated cTnI on admission. We conclude that elevated serum cTnI on admission is independently associated with adverse outcomes in children with SIRS and without associated chronic diseases.