scholarly journals Is rheumatoid arthritis a risk factor for acute coronary syndrome also among individuals at elevated risk, such as individuals presenting with acute chest pain?

RMD Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. e001463
Author(s):  
Per Svensson ◽  
Miriam Bergstrom ◽  
Andrea Discacciati ◽  
Lina Ljung ◽  
Tomas Jernberg ◽  
...  

BackgroundPatients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are, on average, at increased risk of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) compared to the general population, but it remains unknown whether RA remains an ACS risk factor also in settings where the ACS risk is already high elevated, such as among individuals presenting to the emergency department (ED) with chest pain.Methods and resultsWe included 49 283 individuals (514 (1.0%) had RA) presenting with chest pain at the four hospital EDs in Stockholm, Sweden, 2013–2016 in a cohort study. Information on exposure (RA), outcome (ACS) and comorbidities was provided through national registers. The association between RA and ACS was assessed, overall and by levels of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and number of ACS risk factors, using logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, hospital, calendar year and cardiovascular risk factors. ACS was more common in patients with (8.2%) than without (4.6%) RA, adjusted OR =1.4, 95% CI 1.0 to 2.0. This association was particularly strong in individuals with initial hs-cTnT levels between 5 and 14 ng/L, or no additional ACS risk factors (adjusted ORs above 2), but no longer detectable in those with hs-cTnT >14 ng/L or with three or more additional ACS risk factors.ConclusionRA is a risk factor for ACS also among patients at the ED with chest pain. This association is not explained by traditional ACS risk factors, and most pronounced in patients with normal hs-cTnT and few other ACS risk factors, prompting particular ACS vigilance in this RA patient group.

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-7
Author(s):  
Jaimi H Greenslade ◽  
Nicolas Sieben ◽  
William A Parsonage ◽  
Thomas Knowlman ◽  
Lorcan Ruane ◽  
...  

BackgroundEmergency physicians frequently assess risk of acute cardiac events (ACEs) in patients with undifferentiated chest pain. Such estimates have been shown to have moderate to high sensitivity for ACE but are conservative. Little is known about the factors implicitly used by physicians to determine the pretest probability of risk. This study sought to identify the accuracy of physician risk estimates for ACE in patients presenting to the ED with chest pain and to identify the demographic and clinical information emergency physicians use in their determination of patient risk.MethodsThis study used data from two prospective studies of consenting adult patients presenting to the ED with symptoms of possible acute coronary syndrome. ED physicians estimated the pretest probability of ACE. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify predictors of physician risk estimates. Logistic regression was used to determine whether there was a correlation between physicians’ estimated risk and ACE.ResultsIncreasing age, male sex, abnormal ECG features, heavy/crushing chest pain and risk factors were correlated with physician risk estimates. Physician risk estimates were consistently found to be higher than the expected proportion of ACE from the sampled population.ConclusionPhysicians systematically overestimate ACE risk. A range of factors are associated with physician risk estimates. These include factors strongly predictive of ACE, such as age and ECG characteristics. They also include other factors that have been shown to be unreliable predictors of ACE in an ED setting, such as typicality of pain and risk factors.


2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (8) ◽  
pp. 1137-1145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahir Karakas ◽  
James L Januzzi ◽  
Julia Meyer ◽  
Hang Lee ◽  
Christopher L Schlett ◽  
...  

PURPOSE Copeptin, a stable peptide derived from the AVP precursor, has been linked to presence and severity of myocardial ischemia. We sought to evaluate the predictive value of copeptin and its incremental value beyond that of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) in patients with acute chest pain and low to intermediate risk for acute coronary syndrome (ACS). METHODS We recruited patients who presented with acute chest pain to the emergency department and had a negative initial conventional troponin T test (<0.03 μg/L). In all patients, hs-cTnT and copeptin measurements were taken. Each patient also underwent cardiac computed tomography (CT) and coronary angiography. RESULTS Baseline copeptin concentrations, in contrast to hs-cTnT, were not significantly higher in patients with ACS than in those without (P = 0.24). hs-cTnT showed an earlier rise in patients with ACS than copeptin, when analyses were stratified by time. A copeptin concentration ≥7.38 pmol/L had a negative predictive value (NPV) of 94% and a sensitivity of 51%, whereas hs-cTnT (≥13.0 pg/mL) had a NPV of 96% and a sensitivity of 63%. The combination of copeptin and hs-cTnT resulted in a lower diagnostic accuracy than hs-cTnT alone. Finally, on cardiac CT, copeptin concentrations were not associated with coronary artery morphology, although they were related to the presence of left ventricular dysfunction (P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with acute chest pain and low to intermediate risk for ACS, copeptin concentrations are not independently predictive of ACS and do not add diagnostic value beyond that of hs-cTnT measurements.


2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (9) ◽  
pp. 1318-1326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willibald Hochholzer ◽  
Tobias Reichlin ◽  
Raphael Twerenbold ◽  
Claudia Stelzig ◽  
Kirsten Hochholzer ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND High-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays have better analytical precision and sensitivity than earlier-generation assays when measuring cardiac troponin at low concentrations. We evaluated whether use of a high-sensitivity assay could further improve risk stratification compared with a standard cardiac troponin assay. METHODS We enrolled consecutive patients presenting with acute chest pain, 30% of whom were diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome. Blood samples were drawn at the time of presentation. We measured cardiac troponin T with a standard fourth-generation assay (cTnT) and a high-sensitivity assay (hs-cTnT) (both Roche Diagnostics) and followed the patients for 24 months. RESULTS Of the 1159 patients, 76 died and 42 developed an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Prognostic accuracy of hs-cTnT for death was significantly higher [area under ROC curve (AUC) 0.79, 95% CI 0.74–0.84] than that of cTnT (AUC 0.69, 95% CI 0.62–0.76; P < 0.001). After adjustment for Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) risk score (that included the cTnT assay result), hs-cTnT above the 99th percentile (0.014 μg/L) was associated with a hazard ratio for death of 2.60 (95% CI 1.42–4.74). Addition of hs-cTnT to the risk score improved the reclassification of patients (net reclassification improvement 0.91; 95% CI 0.67–1.14; P < 0.001). Subgroup analyses showed that this effect resulted from the better classification of patients without AMI at time of testing. hs-cTnT outperformed cTnT in the prediction of AMI during follow-up (P=0.02), but was not independently predictive for this endpoint. CONCLUSIONS Concentrations of hs-cTnT >0.014 μg/L improve the prediction of death but not subsequent AMI in unselected patients presenting with acute chest pain.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beata Morawiec ◽  
Damian Kawecki ◽  
Brygida Przywara-Chowaniec ◽  
Mariusz Opara ◽  
Piotr Muzyk ◽  
...  

Background. In patients admitted with chest pain and suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS), it is crucial to early identify those who are at higher risk of adverse events. The study aim was to assess the predictive value of copeptin in patients admitted to the emergency department with chest pain and nonconclusive ECG. Methods. Consecutive patients suspected for an ACS were enrolled prospectively. Copeptin and high-sensitive troponin T (hs-TnT) were measured at admission. Patients were followed up at six and 12 months for the occurrence of death and major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE). Results. Among 154 patients, 11 patients died and 26 experienced MACCE. Mortality was higher in copeptin-positive than copeptin-negative patients with no difference in the rate of MACCE. Copeptin reached the AUC 0.86 (0.75–0.97) for prognosis of mortality at six and 0.77 (0.65–0.88) at 12 months. It was higher than for hs-TnT and their combination at both time points. Copeptin was a strong predictor of mortality in the Cox analysis (HR14.1 at six and HR4.3 at 12 months). Conclusions. Copeptin appears to be an independent predictor of long-term mortality in a selected population of patients suspected for an ACS. The study registration number is ISRCTN14112941.


2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 916-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Meune ◽  
Tobias Reichlin ◽  
Affan Irfan ◽  
Nora Schaub ◽  
Raphael Twerenbold ◽  
...  

Abstract BACKGROUND The appropriate management of patients discharged from the emergency department (ED) with increased high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) but normal or borderline-high conventional cardiac troponin concentrations is unknown. METHODS We investigated 643 consecutive ED patients with acute chest pain who had been discharged for outpatient management after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) had been ruled out by serial measurements of conventional cardiac troponin. hs-cTnT was measured blindly, and we calculated the rates of all-cause mortality (primary endpoint) and subsequent AMI (secondary endpoint) at 30, 90, and 360 days. RESULTS hs-cTnT concentrations were increased (>14 ng/L) in 114 patients (18%) but <30 ng/L in 95% of these patients. Of those 114 patients, 96 (84%) had an adjudicated noncoronary cause of chest pain. Thirty-day mortality (95% CI) was 0.9% (0.1%–6.1%), 90-day mortality was 2.7% (0.9%–8.1%), and 360-day mortality was 5.2% (2.2%–11.9%) in patients with increased hs-cTnT; respective rates (95% CI) of AMI were 0.0%, 1.9% (0.5%–7.2%), and 7.6% (3.7%–15.3%). Increased hs-cTnT was associated with increased mortality and AMI at 90 days (P = 0.006 and P = 0.081, respectively) and 360 days (P = 0.001 for both). CONCLUSIONS hs-cTnT is a strong prognosticator of intermediate and long-term mortality and AMI in low-risk patients discharged from the ED after AMI has been ruled out. The relatively low rate of 30-day events may suggest that patients without acute coronary syndrome and small increases in cardiac troponin are in need of further investigations and treatments, but not necessarily immediate hospitalization.


2019 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. 683-687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helga Westerlind ◽  
Marie Holmqvist ◽  
Lotta Ljung ◽  
Thomas Frisell ◽  
Johan Askling

ObjectivesTo investigate a potential shared susceptibility between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) by estimation of the risk of ACS among full siblings of patients with RA.MethodsBy linking nation-wide Swedish registers, we identified a cohort of patients with new-onset RA 1996–2016, age- and sex-matched (5:1) general population comparator subjects, full siblings of RA and comparator subjects, and incident ACS events through 31 December 2016. We used Cox regression to estimate the HR of ACS among patients with RA and the siblings of patients with RA versus the general population, overall and stratified by RA serostatus. We explored the impact of traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors on the observed associations.ResultsWe identified 8109 patients with incident RA, and 11 562 full siblings of these. Compared with the general population, the HR of ACS in RA was 1.46 (95% CI 1.28 to 1.67) and 1.22 (95% CI 1.09 to 1.38) among their siblings. The increased risks seemed confined to seropositive RA (patients: 1.52 [1.30 to 1.79], their siblings: 1.27 [1.10 to 1.46]); no significant risk increase was observed among siblings of patients with seronegative RA (HR 1.13 [95% CI 0.92 to 1.39]). Adjustment for 19 traditional CV risk factors did not appreciably alter these associations.ConclusionSiblings of patients with RA are at increased risk of ACS, suggesting shared susceptibility between RA and ACS, indicating the need and potential for additional cardio-preventive measures in RA (and their siblings).


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Pareek ◽  
K.H Kragholm ◽  
J.L Pallisgaard ◽  
C Byrne ◽  
C.J Lee ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The fourth universal definition of myocardial infarction (MI) consensus paper suggests that patients with changing troponins not reaching concentrations greater than the 99th percentile may be at high risk and deserve close scrutiny. Purpose To determine long-term prognostic implications of high-sensitivity troponin T (hs-TnT) levels and their relative change (Δ) from baseline in subjects with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study through individual participant-level linkage between Danish national registries, including subjects with a final discharge diagnosis of acute MI, unstable angina, suspected MI, or chest pain from March 2013 through December 2016 who had a record of at least two serial hs-TnT measurements during hospitalization. Individuals were followed for 12 months, until the occurrence of an event, or censoring due to emigration. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression, incorporating the competing risk of death, were used to examine the prognostic implications of serial hs-TnT. Subjects were categorized according to whether their first and second hs-TnT were normal/elevated as well as Δhs-TnT and its direction, the latter employing a modified version of the 0/3-hour diagnostic algorithm proposed by ESC, i.e., using cut-offs for Δhs-TnT of 20% and 50%. The primary outcome was a composite of presumed death from cardiovascular causes, recurrent MI, or repeat revascularization (i.e., not including the index event unless the patient died) within 12 months. Results A total of 13,494 individuals (mean age 63.4 years, 39.5% women) were included. Of these, 6129 (45.4%) had a final diagnosis of MI, 941 (7.0%) of unstable angina, and 6414 (47.5%) of either suspected MI or chest pain. Median baseline hs-TnT was 20 ng/l (72.1% elevated), second hs-TnT 27 ng/l (74.6% elevated), Δhs-TnT 4.8%, and time between samples 5.4 hours. At 12 months, 1055 (7.8%) had experienced a primary event. Baseline hs-TnT and Δhs-TnT both displayed a significant association with the primary outcome (P<0.001 for both overall trends and for non-linearity vs. linearity). The Figure shows the prognostic implications of serial hs-TnT. Overall, subjects with two consecutively elevated hs-TnT had the highest 12-month event risk (10.0%), followed by those who went from an elevated to a normal hs-TnT (8.6%), those who went from a normal to an elevated hs-TnT (6.3%), and those with two normal hs-TnT levels (1.6%). The majority either had non-significant Δhs-TnT (−20% to 20%: 56.8%) or a large positive Δhs-TnT (>50%: 30.6%). Individuals with a positive Δhs-TnT (>20%) had a worse prognosis than those without. Conclusions An elevated hs-TnT at any time and Δhs-TnT were both determinants of poorer prognosis in subjects with suspected ACS. Individuals with two normal hs-TnT had a good prognosis, irrespective of their Δhs-TnT. Figure 1 Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None


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