The Effect of Integrating the Biomarker Copeptin Into the Process of Managing Patients With Suspected ACS

Detailed Summary

Acute chest pain is commonly known to be the classic symptom of acute myocardial infarction. Of the many patients which visit the Emergency Department because of chest pain, less than half do actually suffer from an acute myocardial infarction or acute myocardial ischemia. In some patients the acute myocardial infarction can be diagnosed at admission, either because of typical changes in their ECG (STEMI, ST-elevation myocardial infarction)or because of increased levels of the laboratory value Troponin in their blood (NSTEMI, Non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction). Troponin is currently the most important marker to diagnose acute myocardial infarction. Unfortunately a lot of patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome do not show any ECG or Troponin changes. These patients pose a major problem in emergency medicine as they need to precautionally be admitted to a chest pain unit and to be started on medical treatment until a second Troponin test after 6-9 hours is available. In this study, we investigate the biomarker Copeptin. Copeptin has shown excellent results in diagnostic clinical trials assessing its use in various acute diseases. There are three important trials showing an excellent negative predictive value of Copeptin in combination with Troponin in patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (Reichlin et al., JACC, 2009; Keller et al. JACC, 2010, Giannitsis et al. Clin Chem 2011). This trial compares two processes of managing patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS), the standard process according to current guidelines and the experimental process integrating copeptin as a rule-out marker for acute myocardial infarction into management decisions. Main Hypothesis: Patients with suspected ACS who test negative for Troponin and negative for Copeptin at their initial presentation to the ED can safely be discharged (interventional process). They will not experience more major cardiac adverse events than patients who were managed by standard practise (control process)within 30 days after admission. The Investigators want to test Copeptin in patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome in whom the ECG is unspecific and the initial Troponin test is negative. Further patient care will be based on the Copeptin result. Patients with a negative Copeptin will be discharged into the ambulant care of resident cardiologists.Copeptin positive patients will be managed according to standard guidelines for the management of patients with ACS.

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