A large portion of patients going to the emergency department with chest pains are not experiencing a heart attack, according to a study published in JAMA Cardiology.
For the study, researchers in New Zealand took blood samples from 354 adults immediately after they arrived at an single urban ED for chest pains. Researchers created a point-of-care assay with greater analytical precision to measure a blood protein called troponin, which is used to tell if a patient is having an unstable angina or a myocardial infarction.
Researchers found about 55 to 85 percent of people presenting with chest pains in the ED were not having a cardiac event. The troponin assay takes 15 minutes to complete and would significantly decrease patient wait times in the ER if used more widely.
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