Clinical chemistry
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Multicenter Study
How safe is the outpatient management of patients with acute chest pain and mildly increased cardiac troponin concentrations?
The appropriate management of patients discharged from the emergency department (ED) with increased high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) but normal or borderline-high conventional cardiac troponin concentrations is unknown. ⋯ hs-cTnT is a strong prognosticator of intermediate and long-term mortality and AMI in low-risk patients discharged from the ED after AMI has been ruled out. The relatively low rate of 30-day events may suggest that patients without acute coronary syndrome and small increases in cardiac troponin are in need of further investigations and treatments, but not necessarily immediate hospitalization.