Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Cost-effectiveness of point-of-care biomarker assessment for suspected myocardial infarction: the randomized assessment of treatment using panel Assay of cardiac markers (RATPAC) trial.
Chest pain due to suspected myocardial infarction (MI) is responsible for many hospital admissions and consumes substantial health care resources. The Randomized Assessment of Treatment using Panel Assay of Cardiac markers (RATPAC) trial showed that diagnostic assessment using a point-of-care (POC) cardiac biomarker panel consisting of CK-MB, myoglobin, and troponin increased the proportion of patients successfully discharged after emergency department (ED) assessment. In this economic analysis, the authors aimed to determine whether POC biomarker panel assessment reduced health care costs and was likely to be cost-effective. ⋯ Point-of-care panel assessment does not reduce costs despite reducing admissions and may even increase costs. It is unlikely to be considered a cost-effective use of health care resources.