Clinical Use of High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin for Early Diagnosis of Myocardial Infarction and the Potential Impact of...

Course overview

Early and accurate diagnosis of myocardial infarction (MI) is a prerequisite for the timely initiation of life-saving treatment. The first high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) assays were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as early as 2017. These more sensitive assays have been used clinically in Europe, Australia, Canada, and other countries for several years due to their diagnostic superiority over conventional cTn assays. However, the US FDA-approved use of hs-cTn differs from the contemporary use of hs-cTn in most other countries in two important details. First, in the US very low concentrations are only reported down to the limit of quantification (LoQ) compared with the European standard of reporting the limit of detection (LoD) to clinicians. Second, for certain hs-cTn assays the FDA-approved 99th percentile upper reference limit is slightly higher concentration. Both differences impact the threshold for reporting hs-cTn to clinicians. In this webinar, Dr. Luca Koechlin will provide an overview of the applications of hs-cTn in early diagnosis of MI. Dr. Luca Koechlin will also compare the approved applications within the US and beyond and the potential impact of differences in MI diagnosis and patient outcomes. As a frequently used and relied on assay, these differences are important to understand for laboratorians and clinicians in the U.S. when using hs-cTn assays.