Objective: To evaluate whether the complete blood count parameters can be used to predict patients who will have positive troponin levels during emergency department observation, and to establish whether any single parameter or combination of parameters has sufficiently good diagnostic test criteria results to be recommended for use in daily clinical practice.
Study design: An observational study.
Place and duration of study: Department of Emergency Medicine, Duzce University School of Medicine, Duzce, Turkey, from October 2015 to October 2016.
Methodology: Study group had patients with positive troponin levels during observation in the emergency department. The control group had normal troponin levels. Their complete blood count parameters were compared individually and in combination.
Results: Total white blood cell count, neutrophil count, red cell distribution width, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and some combinations of these parameters were found to be predictive of troponin elevation. The best one was combination of white blood cell count, red cell distribution width and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio.
Conclusion: Some of the complete blood count parameters may provide some clues when predicting troponin elevation in patients with chest pain. However, none of these parameters or no combination of them have sufficiently good diagnostic test criteria results to safely predict non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction.