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  • Review Article
  • Published:

High-sensitivity assays for troponin in patients with cardiac disease

Key Points

  • Troponin is a widely used biomarker in patients with cardiac disease

  • High-sensitivity assays enable the detection of very low concentrations of troponin

  • Rapid diagnostic strategies for patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction have been introduced

  • Noncoronary and nonacute applications of troponin assays are on the horizon, and might improve individual risk stratification

Abstract

Troponin is a widely used biomarker in patients with cardiac disease. The use of troponin is well established in patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction (AMI), but troponin measurement is also used in other acute and nonacute settings. In patients with suspected AMI, early decision-making is crucial to allow rapid treatment and further diagnostic evaluation. Current guidelines recommend serial measurements of troponin with a cut-off concentration at the 99th percentile to triage patients in the emergency department. Newer, high-sensitivity assays for troponin enable the detection of distinctly lower concentrations. Using these assays and very low cut-off concentrations, several rapid diagnostic strategies have been reported to improve diagnosis in acute cardiac care. Furthermore, noncoronary and nonacute applications of troponin assays — for example as a biomarker in patients with heart failure, pulmonary embolism, or stable coronary artery disease — are on the horizon and might improve individual risk stratification. In this Review, we provide an overview on the development of high-sensitivity assays for troponin, and their application in patients with cardiac disease.

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Figure 1: Pathophysiological background of troponin and troponin release in different settings.
Figure 2: ESC algorithm for diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with a 0/1-h approach and measurement of troponin using a high-sensitivity assay.
Figure 3: Myocardial infarction and troponin release.

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D.W., J.T.N., and N.A.S. researched data for the article and wrote the manuscript. All the authors discussed the content of the article, and reviewed/edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Dirk Westermann.

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S.B. declares that he has received honoraria from Abbott Diagnostics, Roche Diagnostics, Siemens, and Thermo Fisher, and is a consultant for Thermo Fisher. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Westermann, D., Neumann, J., Sörensen, N. et al. High-sensitivity assays for troponin in patients with cardiac disease. Nat Rev Cardiol 14, 472–483 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2017.48

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