Here is a study proving that New Troponin Assay could help identify Acute MI earlier thereby reducing mortality.

Team@CMHF

A next-generation, highly sensitive troponin I assay may help speed the diagnosis of myocardial infarction (MI) among patients presenting to the emergency department with acute chest pain, researchers found.

Using a diagnostic cutoff of greater than the 99th percentile of 32 pg/mL, the Architect STAT High Sensitive Troponin I assay had a negative predictive value of 94.7% at admission and 99.4% at three hours after admission, according to Stefan Blankenberg, MD, from the University Heart Center Hamburg in Germany, and colleagues.

In addition, combining information from admission with the relative change in troponin I levels in the first three hours yielded a high positive predictive value of 95.8%,

A less sensitive troponin I assay currently used in clinical practice provided similar performance, but the newer assay could have some advantages.

“In the subgroup of patients presenting with troponin I values below the 99th percentile cutoff on admission increasing above this threshold within three hours, the enhanced sensitivity of the [highly sensitive] assay could lead to an improved identification of MI if using the relative change as [a] criterion,” they wrote.

They noted that future studies are needed on whether the use of relative changes in troponin I concentrations improves patient care and outcomes.

The study included 1,818 patients with suspected acute coronary syndromes who were enrolled at the chest pain units of three German centers.

Clinicians measured 12 biomarkers, including troponin I

The level of detection for the older troponin I assay (Architect STAT) was 10 pg/mL. The level of detection for the newer assay was 3.4 pg/mL.

Overall, 22.7% of the patients received a final discharge diagnosis of acute MI.
For the discrimination of acute MI, the highly sensitive assay had a higher area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) than the older assay, which was attributed to the difference in the level of detection.

Both assays performed better than the other biomarkers measured in the study.

Combining information from admission and the relative change in troponin I concentrations improved the performance of both assays. Results from the two assays were not significantly different.
The authors acknowledged some limitations of the study.

Ref: http://www.medpagetoday.com/EmergencyMedicine/EmergencyMedicine/30408?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=WC&email=drsumanrao21@gmail.com&eun=g371326d0r&userid=371326&mu_id=