title: Utility of point-of-care diagnostic testing in patients with chest pain and suspected acute myocardial infarction.
abstract: Advances over the past few years have led to the use of hand-held point-of-care diagnostic tests to expedite testing for cardiac enzymes indicative of acute myocardial infarction. Although cardiac enzymes such as troponin I and CKMB are reliable markers of acute myocardial infarction, they cannot be detected until several hours after the insult and patients are often tested for up to 24 hours before acute myocardial infarction can be ruled out. A better understanding of early events in thrombus formation, specifically the role of P-selectin in platelet aggregation, should soon allow even more rapid diagnosis and improve pharmacological treatment. In addition, early ruling-out of patients with non-cardiac chest pain would reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and associated healthcare costs.
authors.affiliation: CarePoint Diagnostics, Inc., 10180 Viking Drive, Eden Prairie, MN 55344, USA. CVR2000@portup.com
authors.forename: Ronald J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Shebuski
mesh_terms: D002637:Chest Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence