Dan Med Bull
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Acute coronary syndrome encompasses the entities acute MI, unstable AP and sudden cardiac death. The syndrome of unstable AP covers a very heterogenous group of patients. Recent pathological post-mortem investigations have revealed, that unstable AP leading to MI or sudden cardiac death is frequently preceded by microinfarctions. ⋯ A similar observation has been supported by others using the rate of change in serial samples of CK-MB mass. Further, we demonstrated a good correlation between elevated CK-MB mass levels and a poor prognosis, when using a fixed discrimination limit. However, an increasing number of CK-MB mass immunoassays have been developed, and a standardization of CK-MB mass is urgently needed, as at present each laboratory determines its own reference levels and discriminatory values leading to the risk of diagnostic confusion. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)