Summary

Approximately 15 to 20 million patients visit hospital emergency departments (EDs) in Europe and the United States for chest pain each year [Thygesen K et al. J Am Coll Cardiol 2012; Nawar EW et al. Adv Data 2007; Goodacre S et al. Heart 2005]. Traditionally several cardiac troponin measurements are required over hours in order to detect injury indicative of myocardial infarction. Recently developed high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays, however, can detect increased troponin concentrations hours earlier than older generation assays potentially establishing a diagnosis with a single measurement. This article discusses the Undetectable High Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin T Level in the Emergency Department and Risk of Myocardial Infarction study [Bandstein N et al. J Am Coll Cardiol 2014].