Unfallchirurgie
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In all of our reported cases a seat belt injury was the reason for the sternal fracture. Only 4 of 27 patients of this prospective study suffered from a heart contusion. ⋯ Referring to our patients a screening of a heart contusion with CKMB/CK activity and ECG seems to be sufficient when the trauma is not older than 12 hours. The longer persisting plasma concentrations of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) enables a diagnosis of a heart contusion even after a few days.