scholarly journals Predictive Value of a 6-Hour Ecg/Troponin Protocol in Patients with Chest Pain

2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 146-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
CY Man ◽  
PA Cameron ◽  
WL Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Acute Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Acute Coronary Syndrome ◽  
Chest Pain ◽  
Troponin T ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Chinese Patients ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Coronary Syndrome ◽  
Pain Patients

Introduction Patients presenting with chest pain and considered to be at low risk of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) may still have coronary heart disease. The potential risk of sudden cardiac death due to arrhythmias or progression to acute myocardial infarction still exists. To minimize this risk, we have designed a 6-hour risk stratification protocol for patients with a low risk of acute myocardial infarction on initial assessment in the Accident and Emergency Department (AED). Materials & Methods This was a retrospective observational study with the aim of determining the risk of adverse cardiovascular events in chest pain patients attending an AED. These patients were subject to an ECG and cardiac troponin T tests (cTnT) at 0 hour and at 6 hours (if the two tests were negative at 0 hour), and were put under observation in the AED observation ward during the same period. The main outcome measures were adverse cardiac events at 30 days. Results A total of 371 Chinese patients considered to have low risk of ACS were recruited into the protocol. Troponin T tested positive in 19 patients (5.1%) at 0 hour and 8 patients (2.2%) at 6 hours. Amongst the 332 patients that were discharged directly from the AED, there were no re-admissions for cardiac-related deaths, acute myocardial infarction, arrhythmia or heart failure. Conclusion The 6-hour ECG and troponin T observation protocol is a useful tool to allow safe discharge of chest pain patients who are at low risk of acute coronary syndrome.

A comparison of cardiac troponin T delta change methods and the importance of the clinical context in the assessment of acute coronary syndrome

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 701-707
Author(s):  
Paul Simpson ◽  
Rosy Tirimacco ◽  
Penelope Cowley ◽  
May Siew ◽  
Narelle Berry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Acute Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Acute Coronary Syndrome ◽  
Cardiac Troponin ◽  
Troponin T ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Z Score ◽  
Clinical Context ◽  
Coronary Syndrome ◽  
Delta Change

Background The management of patients presenting with symptoms suggestive of acute coronary syndrome is a significant challenge for clinicians. Guidelines for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction require a rise and/or fall of cardiac troponin, along with other criteria. Knowing what constitutes a significant delta change from baseline is still unclear and the literature is varied. Methods We compared three methods for determining cardiac troponin delta changes (relative, absolute and z-scores) for detecting acute myocardial infarction in 806 patients presenting to an emergency department with symptoms suggestive of acute coronary syndrome. Blood specimens were collected at admission and 2, 3, 4 and 6 h postadmission and tested on the Roche Elecsys high-sensitivity troponin T assay. Results A positive diagnosis for acute myocardial infarction was found in 39 (4.8%) patients. ROC AUC showed better performance for the absolute and z-score delta change (0.959–0.988 and 0.956–0.988, respectively) compared with relative delta change (0.921–0.960) at all time points in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. Optimal timing for the second sample was at 4–6 h postadmission. Conclusions Although not statistically significant, the results show a trend of absolute and z-score delta change performing better than relative delta change for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. The z-score approach allows for a single cut-off value across multiple high-sensitivity assays which could be useful in the clinical setting. Our study also highlighted the importance of interpreting cardiac troponin changes in the clinical context with a combination of the patient’s clinical history and electrocardiogram.

scholarly journals External validation of an emergency department triage algorithm for chest pain patients

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 576-585
Author(s):  
Òscar Miró ◽  
Pedro Lopez-Ayala ◽  
Gemma Martínez-Nadal ◽  
Valentina Troester ◽  
Ivo Strebel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Department ◽  
Acute Coronary Syndrome ◽  
Chest Pain ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Single Centre ◽  
Coronary Syndrome ◽  
Emergency Department Triage ◽  
Model C ◽  
Triage Algorithm ◽  
Pain Patients

Background We aimed to externally validate an emergency department triage algorithm including five hierarchical clinical variables developed to identify chest pain patients at low risk of having an acute coronary syndrome justifying delayed rather than immediate evaluation. Methods In a single-centre cohort enrolling 29,269 consecutive patients presenting with chest pain, the performance of the algorithm was compared against the emergency department discharge diagnosis. In an international multicentre study enrolling 4069 patients, central adjudication by two independent cardiologists using all data derived from cardiac work-up including follow-up served as the reference. Triage towards ‘low-risk’ required absence of all five clinical ‘high-risk’ variables: history of coronary artery disease, diabetes, pressure-like chest pain, retrosternal chest pain and age above 40 years. Safety (sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV)) and efficacy (percentage of patients classified as low risk) was tested in this initial proposal (Model A) and in two additional models: omitting age criteria (Model B) and allowing up to one (any) of the five high-risk variables (Model C). Results The prevalence of acute coronary syndrome was 9.4% in the single-centre and 28.4% in the multicentre study. The triage algorithm had very high sensitivity/NPV in both cohorts (99.4%/99.1% and 99.9%/99.1%, respectively), but very low efficacy (6.2% and 2.7%, respectively). Model B resulted in sensitivity/NPV of 97.5%/98.3% and 96.1%/89.4%, while efficacy increased to 14.2% and 10.4%, respectively. Model C resulted in sensitivity/NPV of 96.7%/98.6% and 95.2%/91.3%, with a further increase in efficacy to 23.1% and 15.5%, respectively. Conclusion A triage algorithm for the identification of low-risk chest pain patients exclusively based on simple clinical variables provided reasonable performance characteristics possibly justifying delayed rather than immediate evaluation in the emergency department.

scholarly journals Elevated Heart-Type Fatty Acid-Binding Protein Predicts Early Myocardial Injury and Aids in the Diagnosis of Non-St Elevation Myocardial Infarction

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
GY Naroo ◽  
S Mohamed Ali ◽  
V Butros ◽  
A Al Haj ◽  
I Mohammed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Acute Coronary Syndrome ◽  
Fatty Acid ◽  
Chest Pain ◽  
Fatty Acid Binding Protein ◽  
Troponin T ◽  
Binding Protein ◽  
Fatty Acid Binding ◽  
Coronary Syndrome ◽  
Acid Binding Protein

Background Biomarkers play an important role in the early diagnosis, risk stratification and management of patients with the acute coronary syndrome. Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical reliability of heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (h-FABP) in identifying patients with the acute coronary syndrome in the early hours of chest pain. Methods Creatine kinase (CK-MB) (in laboratory), troponin T (in laboratory) and h-FABP (with point-of-care test CardioDetect®) were performed on 791 patients who presented with chest pain with duration since onset ranging from 20 minutes to 12 hours. Results Data of the 791 patients were analysed. h-FABP had a higher sensitivity of 75.76% and a specificity of 96.97% compared with 58.59% and 98.84% for troponin T and 68.69% and 97.54% for CK-MB respectively (in the first 6 hours). Conclusion: h-FABP was found to be a better biomarker of cardiac necrosis in the early hours in the diagnosis of non-conclusive ECG in patients with acute myocardial infarction. (Hong Kong j.emerg.med. 2009;16:141–147)

Comparative Prospective Study of the Performance of Chest Pain Scores and Clinical Assessment in an Emergency Department Cohort in Singapore

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ng Mingwei ◽  
Hong Jie Gabriel Tan ◽  
Fei Gao ◽  
Jack Wei Chieh Tan ◽  
Swee Han Lim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Department ◽  
Acute Coronary Syndrome ◽  
Chest Pain ◽  
Clinical Assessment ◽  
Clinical Judgment ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events ◽  
Coronary Syndrome ◽  
Pain Scores ◽  
Pain Patients

Abstract Background Chest pain scores allow emergency physicians to identify low-risk patients for whom discharge can be safely expedited. While their utility have been extensively studied and validated in Western cohorts, data in patients of Asian heritage is lacking. This study aimed to determine the accuracy of HEART, EDACS and GRACE in risk-stratifying which emergency patients with chest pain or angina-equivalent symptoms are at risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) within 30 days (composite of all-cause mortality, acute myocardial infarction, and coronary revascularization). This single-centre prospective cohort-study enrolling 1200 patients was conducted by a large urban tertiary centre in Singapore. The chest pain scores were reported prior to disposition by research assistants blinded to the physician’s clinical assessment. Outcome adjudication was performed by an independent blinded cardiologist and emergency physician, while a second cardiologist adjudicated in the case of discrepancies. \Results Of 1200 patients enrolled, 5 withdrew consent and were excluded from analyses. 135 patients (11.3%) suffered MACE within 30 days. HEART, which ruled-out acute coronary syndrome in 52.8% of patients with 88.1% sensitivity, and EDACS, which ruled-out acute coronary syndrome in 57.5% of patients with 83.7% sensitivity, proved comparable to clinical judgment which ruled-out acute coronary syndrome in 73.0% of patients with 85.5% sensitivity. GRACE was weaker – ruling-out acute coronary syndrome in 79.2% of patients but with a dismal sensitivity of 45.0%. The correlation-statistic for HEART (79.4%) was also superior to EDACS (69.9%) and GRACE (69.2%). Conclusions HEART more accurately identified low-risk chest pain patients in an Asian emergency department who were suitable for expedited discharge and demonstrated comparable performance characteristics to clinical judgment. This has major implications on the use of chest pain scores to safely expedite disposition decisions for low-risk chest pain patients in the emergency department.

scholarly journals Incremental Value of High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin T for Risk Prediction in Patients with Suspected Acute Myocardial Infarction

2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (9) ◽  
pp. 1318-1326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willibald Hochholzer ◽  
Tobias Reichlin ◽  
Raphael Twerenbold ◽  
Claudia Stelzig ◽  
Kirsten Hochholzer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Acute Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Chest Pain ◽  
Risk Score ◽  
Cardiac Troponin ◽  
Troponin T ◽  
Acute Chest Pain ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Cardiac Troponin T ◽  
Coronary Syndrome

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.

scholarly journals Serial Sampling of High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin T May Not Be Required for Prediction of Acute Myocardial Infarction Diagnosis in Chest Pain Patients with Highly Abnormal Concentrations at Presentation

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 542-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Mueller-Hennessen ◽  
Christian Mueller ◽  
Evangelos Giannitsis ◽  
Moritz Biener ◽  
Mehrshad Vafaie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Acute Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Chest Pain ◽  
Cardiac Troponin ◽  
Troponin T ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Final Diagnosis ◽  
Cardiac Troponin T ◽  
Blood Concentrations ◽  
Pain Patients

Abstract BACKGROUND Guidelines for diagnosing acute myocardial infarction (AMI) recommend adding kinetic changes to the initial cardiac troponin (cTn) blood concentration to improve AMI diagnosis. We hypothesized that kinetic changes may not be required in patients presenting with highly abnormal cTn. METHODS Patients presenting with suspected AMI to the emergency department were enrolled in a prospective diagnostic study. We assessed the positive predictive value (PPV) of initial high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) blood concentrations alone and in combination with kinetic changes for AMI. Predefined relative changes (δ change of ≥20%) and absolute changes (Δ change ≥9.2 ng/L) within different time intervals (1 h, 2 h, and 4–14 h after presentation) were assessed. The final diagnosis was adjudicated by 2 independent cardiologists. RESULTS Among 1282 patients, 213 (16.6%) patients had a final diagnosis of AMI. For AMI prediction, PPVs increased from 48.8% for an initial hs-cTnT >14 ng/L to 87.2% for >60 ng/L, whereas PPVs remained unchanged for higher hs-cTnT concentrations at baseline (87.1% for both >80 ng/L and >100 ng/L). With addition of 20% relative Δ change, PPVs were not further improved in patients with baseline hs-cTnT >80 ng/L using the 1-h (84.0%) and 2-h (88.9%) intervals, and only minimally when extending the interval to 4–14 h (91.2% for >80 ng/L and 90.4% for >100 ng/L, respectively). Similar findings were observed when applying absolute changes. CONCLUSIONS In chest pain patients with highly abnormal hs-cTnT concentrations at presentation, subsequent blood draws may not be required, as they do not provide incremental diagnostic value for prediction of AMI diagnosis.

scholarly journals Acute Myocardial Infarction Followed by Cerebral Hemorrhagic Infarction in Polycythemia Vera: Case Report and Literature Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
XiangSen Shao ◽  
ZhuoTing Liu ◽  
ChunChang Qin ◽  
Fei Xiao
Keyword(s):  
Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Acute Myocardial Infarction ◽  
Acute Coronary Syndrome ◽  
Polycythemia Vera ◽  
Troponin T ◽  
Thrombus Formation ◽  
Elevated Serum ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Hemorrhagic Infarction ◽  
Coronary Syndrome

A 60-year-old man presented to our emergency room with severe chest pain. Based on the electrocardiogram and elevated serum troponin T levels, acute coronary syndrome was suspected. Coronary angiography revealed total occlusion of the middle of the left anterior descending coronary artery. However, blood cell count abnormalities were not of concern. Twelve days later, the patient developed hemorrhagic infarction in the right parieto-occipital lobe. Acute coronary syndrome and cerebral hemorrhagic infarction were primarily caused by thrombus formation due to polycythemia vera (PV), based on the presence of increased blood consistency on admission. PV was diagnosed after bone marrow biopsy and genetic testing. The patient was treated with descending cell and antiplatelet therapy. Our case highlights the importance of the urgent identification of PV. When acute myocardial infarction occurs in patients with no significant risk factors for cardiovascular disease, blood routine abnormalities should be paid close attention to. If PV was diagnosed as early as possible, thrombotic and hemorrhagic complications could be prevented in the early stages.

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