A diagnostic strategy for myocardial infarction

In attempting to make the diagnosis of myocardial infarction, the family physician has available an increasing array of enzyme and nuclear imaging techniques to add to the clinical and electrocardiographic findings. In this review several of the new diagnostic tests are described, and their role is discussed both in supplementing and replacing older diagnostic tests. A general strategy for employing both old and new tests is proposed, with a goal of achieving both increased diagnostic accuracy and reduced charges for laboratory tests.