Advanced emergency nursing journal
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Comparative Study
Comparison of High-Sensitivity Troponin T Assay to Conventional Troponin T Assay for Rule Out of Acute Coronary Syndrome in the Emergency Department.
Approximately 5% of all emergency department (ED) visits require evaluation of chest pain and atypical symptoms for diagnosis or exclusion of myocardial infarction or acute coronary syndrome (ACS) (P. ). Health care providers rely on effective tests and assessment protocols for definitive diagnosis of ACS. Cardiac biomarkers in troponin T assays enable rapid exclusion of ACS. ⋯ In the preintervention group, 4 (2.7%) patients were readmitted within 30 days with ACS; no readmissions were reported for the postintervention group. Findings supported outcome improvements with the high-sensitivity troponin T assay. Using high-sensitivity troponin T assay in the diagnosis protocol can improve length of stay for patients with exclusion of ACS and reduce unnecessary stress tests during the ED stay.