[Troponin test in clinical daily practice - Differences in the quality criteria for the diagnosis of acute myocardial Infarction considering clinical leading symptoms: A cross-sectional study].

Introduction: Cardiac troponins are the prefered cardial biomarker in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. Because they are detectable by myocardial cell damage, no matter what pathophysiology, the interpretation of a positive test is difficult. The aim of this study is to assess the quality criteria of the troponin test in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction in everyday life and whether clinical leading symptoms have an influence on it.

Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study, in which all patients who presented themselves in the emergency department of the Klinikum Lippe-Detmold between 01.01.2014 and 31.05.2014, and had a Troponin-I test were included. The diagnosis "acute myocardial infarction" referred to myocardial infarction type I and was made by the cardiologist on-duty. The patients were divided into four subgroups according to the leading symptoms. The quality criteria of the Troponin-test were calculated.

Results: 1046 patients were included. In 15 %, acute myocardial infarction was present, of which 97 % had thoracic pain. The sensitivities and the negative predictive values were over 90 %. The specificities ranged between 56 % and 81 %. The positive predictive values were modest and best in case of thoracic pain 58 %.

Conclusion: The Troponin test had a good negative predictive value for all clinical symptoms. Thus, an acute myocardial infarction could be excluded with high precision. However, the positive predictive value was low. The only direct symptom that achieved acceptable levels was thoracic pain.