Sensible Use of High-Sensitivity Troponin Assays

  • Danielle Hof
  • Roland Klingenberg
  • Arnold von Eckardstein
Protocol
First Online:
Part of the Methods in Molecular Biology book series (MIMB, volume 963)

Abstract

The first intracellular Ca2+-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.

Key words

Acute coronary syndrome Cardiovascular disease High-sensitivity assay NSTEMI STEMI Cardiac troponin Laboratory medicine Calcium EF-hand 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Danielle Hof
    • 1
  • Roland Klingenberg
    • 2
  • Arnold von Eckardstein
    • 1
  1. 1.Institute for Clinical ChemistryUniversity Hospital ZürichZürichSwitzerland
  2. 2.Department of Cardiology/Cardiovascular ResearchUniversity Hospital ZürichZürichSwitzerland

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