title: Sensible use of high-sensitivity troponin assays.
abstract: The first intracellular Ca(2+)-sensor protein to be described was the troponin complex. Only later it was -discovered that cardiac-specific isoforms of troponin I (cTnI) and troponin T (cTnT) exist, and nowadays, measurement of cardiac troponins is a corner stone in the diagnosis of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). High-sensitivity (hs-) assays have been developed that can record slightly elevated plasma concentrations of cardiac troponins as early as 3 h after onset of clinical symptoms. International guidelines defined a diagnostic cut-off at cardiac troponin levels corresponding to the 99th percentile of a healthy reference population and require that hs-assays measure this concentration with an interassay coefficient of variation ≤10%. This review provides an overview of the diagnostic and prognostic use of cardiac troponins.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical Chemistry, University Hospital Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hof
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Klingenberg
authors.forename: Arnold
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: von Eckardstein
mesh_terms: D054058:Acute Coronary Syndrome / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D000818:Animals; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014336:Troponin / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014336:Troponin