Chen JR, et al. - Researchers conducted this study involving 715 elderly patients hospitalized for medical conditions other than acute cardiovascular events to gauge the relationship between two biomarkers—high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and N-terminal prohormone brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP)—and long-term mortality. They compared the predictive value of these biomarkers for all-cause mortality. During follow-up (median of 47 months), 135 (18.9%) all-cause mortality cases were identified. Study participants were categorized into low, middle, and high groups on the basis of tertiles of baseline hs-cTnT and NT-proBNP levels. According to findings, baseline NT-proBNP levels failed to show an independent relation to all-cause mortality, unlike hs-cTnT. The investigators noted the significant prognostic value of hs-cTnT for mortality. For predicting mortality, hs-cTnT was superior to NT-proBNP, as area under curves for hs-cTnT and NT-proBNP at 60 months were 0.712 and 0.585, respectively. Also, no better prediction was obtained with the combination of the two cardiac biomarkers vs hs-cTnT alone.