Nawaz Sharif tested positive for cardiac troponin T and I

The PML-N's supremo had already undergone a heart surgery and coronary stent procedures.

LAHORE (Dunya News) – Former incarcerated prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is undergoing medical treatment at Services Hospital for the last five days, tested positive for cardiac troponin T or troponin I medical tests on Saturday.

Immediately, doctors gave blood thinning drugs to Sharif whose health condition was already critical with fluctuation in his platelets and angina pain, sources told the media.

The PML-N supremo’s echocardiography is normal and ECG report has been termed “satisfactory”, according to Sharif’s multiple medical test reports.

He has been suffering from diabetes, stress, kidney complications, heart disease, cholesterol, joint pain and thrombocytopenia. He had already undergone a heart surgery and coronary stent procedures.

A troponin test measures the levels of cardiac troponin T or troponin I proteins in the blood. These proteins are released when the heart muscle has been damaged such as occurs with a heart attack. The more damage there is to the heart, the greater the amount of troponin T and I, there will be in the blood.

Sources said that a medical board examining his health could give him permission to travel abroad for medical treatment if his platelet count recovers to 50,000 and doesn’t encounter any heart complications.

The medical board has decided to continue Nawaz Sharif’s treatment with immunoglobulin injections in light of the test reports. It has recommended that the patient needed at least 80 more immunoglobulin injections as these injections can help prevent the patient’s internal bleeding and increase platelets.

Importantly, Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz has been shifted from the Kot Lakhpat Jail to the Services Hospital to inquire about her father’s health. Her transfer to the hospital was decided in the consultative meeting of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Governor Chaudhry Sarwar.

Moreover, she also underwent medical examination at the hospital and has been shifted to the very next room of Sharif.

On Tuesday, doctors at the hospital had termed Nawaz’s condition as ‘serious’ despite the transfusion of three mega units of platelets within hours of his admission.

According to the medical tests carried out on Tuesday, the platelet count of the former premier had "dropped from 16,000 to a critical level of 2,000" when he was brought to hospital late on Monday night, prompting the medical board members to go for "immediate transfusion of the platelets to save his life", one of the board members had said.

Later on Thursday, a six-member medical board, headed by Services Hospital Principal Mahmood Ayaz, diagnosed the reason for Sharif’s declining health. “It is acute immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a bleeding disorder, in which the immune system destroys platelets,” a board member said, adding doctors were hopeful that his condition would improve in a few days.