Troponin testing in the emergency department in MUH

Abstract

Background / Problem Identified: Chest pain is one of the most common reasons for people attending the emergency department (ED). As there are many causes of chest pain, the physician has the responsibility of ruling out serious and potentially life threatening conditions such as acute myocardial infarction (MI), aortic dissection or pulmonary embolism (PE). Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) is one of the most common presentations in acute hospital settings. Cardiac troponin (TnI) is the preferred biomarker for the detection of myocardial injury. High sensitivity assays can detect elevated levels of TnI (above the 99th percentile of an apparently healthy reference population) within 3 hours after the onset of chest pain. It is particularly of value for the cohort of patients who have ACS, without typical features. For example diabetic patients, the very elderly or those with asymptomatic ACS. However if troponin is used incorrectly and without true clinical context then it can be elevated in a number of non cardiac conditions which can lead to a false clinical diagnosis, inappropriate workup and an increased patient stay in hospital. It was felt that an excessive amount of troponin tests were being requested especially in the ED so an audit was carried out to examine patterns of troponin requesting and to determine if troponin tests are requested appropriately from the ED in MUH and if the timings of the repeat requests were appropriate.