Purpose: In patients with a suspected acute myocardial infarction (AMI), to evaluate the potential for early triage based on measurement of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and copeptin in blood samples collected in the prehospital phase.
Materials and methods: In this retrospective study, we measured hs-cTnT and copeptin in blood samples collected in the ambulance form 962 patients with suspected AMI. The diagnostic accuracy was estimated by receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve area under the curve (AUC) for both biomarkers and a combined model. Multivariable Cox regression modelling was used to estimate the predictive value of both biomarkers.
Results: In total, 178 (19%) cases had AMI. The AUC for hs-cTnT was 0.81. Adding copeptin increased the AUC to 0.85 (p = 0.004) and the combined model allowed a prehospital rule-out of 45% of cases without AMI (negative predictive value, NPV 98%). Both biomarkers are highly predictive of outcome.
Conclusions: A future application of hs-cTnT and copeptin measurement, performed already in the prehospital phase, could potentially improve the prehospital diagnostic and prognostic classification of patients with a suspected AMI.
Keywords: Acute coronary syndrome; biomarkers; copeptin; diagnosis; prehospital emergency care; prognosis; troponin.