Differences in measurement of high-sensitivity troponin in an on-demand and batch-wise setting

Most studies assessing the diagnostic value of high-sensitivity troponin in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction used batch-wise analyses of frozen samples for high-sensitivity troponin measurements. Whether the accuracy of these batch-wise high-sensitivity troponin measurements described in diagnostic studies is comparable to clinical routine is unknown.

We enrolled 937 patients presenting with suspected myocardial infarction in this prospective cohort study. Measurements of high-sensitivity troponin I (Abbott Architect) and high-sensitivity troponin T (Roche) were performed in two settings: (a) on-demand in clinical routine using fresh blood samples; and (b) in batches using frozen blood samples from the same individuals at three timepoints (0 hours, 1 hour and 3 hours after presentation).

Median troponin levels were not different between on-demand and batch-wise measurements. Troponin levels in the range of 0 to 40 ng/L showed a very high correlation between the on-demand and batch setting (Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was 0.92-0.95 for high-sensitivity troponin I and 0.96 for high-sensitivity troponin T). However, at very low troponin levels (0 to 10 ng/L) correlation between the two settings was moderate (r for high-sensitivity troponin I 0.59-0.66 and 0.65-0.69 for high-sensitivity troponin T). Application of guideline-recommended rapid diagnostic algorithms showed similar diagnostic performance with both methods.

Overall on-demand and batch-wise measurements of high-sensitivity troponin provided similar results, but their correlation was moderate, when focusing on very low troponin levels. The application of rapid diagnostic algorithms was safe in both settings.Trial Registration: www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02355457).