Common scenarios to clarify the interpretation of cardiac markers.

The authors present a practical approach for physicians in clinical practice to use cardiac troponins in the interpretation of heart disease and myocardial damage. Laboratory results that fall within the intermediate area of facility-specific cutoff reference values for elevated troponin levels confer lower risks to patients than do higher levels of cardiac troponin. Perhaps not surprisingly, the actual anatomy of the vessels at cardiac catheterization does not correlate well with the troponin level.

Decreased laboratory testing for lecithin-to-sphingomyelin ratio and phosphatidylglycerol after fetal lung maturity assessment from lamellar body count in amniotic fluid.

The objectives of this study were to do inexpensive lamellar body count (LBC) in amniotic fluid, to do statistical analysis to evaluate cutoff values for fetal lung maturity (FLM) and fetal lung immaturity (FLI), to derive a threshold for obtaining a lecithin-to-sphingomyelin (L/S) ratio and phosphatidylglycerol percentage (%PG), and to determine the potential cost savings to the hospital if they use this new method. Testing (LBC, L/S ratio, and %PG) was done on 123 specimens of amniotic fluid. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, discriminant, linear regression, chi2, and cost analyses were used to evaluate the laboratory and financial parameters.