Troponin blood testing in cardiac care

Across England and Wales, acute chest pain is responsible for around 700,000 emergency department attendances and 350,000 emergency admissions every year, of which over 100,000 present as cases of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). This article outlines the potential use of cardiac biomarker measurement with a point of care testing (POCT) system, and explains how it can bring potential benefits for those presenting with acute chest pains and their care teams by helping to establish a diagnostic pathway more quickly. 

In particular within acute chest pain presentations, diagnostic cardiac biomarker measurement can provide clinicians with an ability to help distinguish the cause of acute chest pain and help rule out Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) through troponin assay measurement. Using POCT it is now possible to obtain a troponin result which can be used to safely rule out AMI from a chest pain presentation in 10 minutes, as opposed to potentially one hour or more in a traditional lab setting, thereby offering patient benefits including improved turnaround time (TAT) and an additional care pathway planning tool. 

POCT is a tool designed to help care teams navigate a complex cardiac diagnostic process. To explore the challenge further, it is recognised that distinguishing between ACS, acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and angina, and other causes of chest pain can be problematic. The pain of AMI can be similar to that of angina but more severe and lasting for longer periods of time. The patient may also report heavy and painful pressure on the chest, pain down the arms, sweating, shortness of breath and feeling nauseous.