Diagnostic Value of Heart-type Fatty Acid Binding Protein in Group of Patients with NSTEMI at the Time of Application for Medical Care

The relevance of the early detection of myocardial necrosis is due to the difficulties of differential diagnosis in the first hours of the development of acute coronary syndrome. Therefore, the doctors of the first contact, as before, are interested in an early cardiac marker and the presence of tests based on it. Heart fatty acid binding protein (h-FABP) is a cardiac marker that increases in the blood to diagnostic values after just one hour from the beginning of clinical manifestations. The objective: to determine the diagnostic value of heart fatty acid binding protein in group of patients with NSTEMI. Materials and methods. We examined 280 patients with STEMI, 91 patients with NSTEMI, 76 with stable angina pectoris. Blood samples were taken from all patients at the first contact to determine troponin I, a heart fatty acid binding protein and CPK-MB. Patients with NSTEMI were divided into three subgroups: the first – up to 3 hours from the onset of symptoms, the second – from 3 to 6, the third from 6 to 12. The level of heart fatty acid binding protein in plasma was determined by enzyme immunoassay. Results. The early detection of AMI in people visiting primary care doctors with chest pain continues to be a challenge. Undoubtedly, cardiac troponins are the “gold standard” for the diagnosis of AMI, but early detection of these can give a negative result. The results of the studies show a high diagnostic efficacy of h-FABP in the early diagnosis of AMI, and it is superior in sensitivity (in the first hours from the onset of the disease) to cardiac troponins. So, for example, in the subgroup of patients with the onset of symptom manifestation up to 3 hours for h-FABP with a cut-off >0,48 ng/ml, the sensitivity was 92.7 % and specificity was 97,3 % (AUC=0,99; 95 % CI AUC 0,942–0,998). In the same subgroup, troponin I had a specificity of 22,0 %, with cut off >0,84 ng/ml (AUC=0,71; 95 % CI AUC 0,615–0,787). Conclusions. The level of cardiac protein that binds fatty acids is significantly increased in patients with acute myocardial infarction compared with stable coronary heart disease.