Home >> Tag Archives: Cardiovascular disease/cardiac markers

Tag Archives: Cardiovascular disease/cardiac markers

On the track of new approaches to myocarditis

May 2022—Studies show promise for new approaches to biomarkers for myocarditis diagnosis, one of which is circulating micro­RNA mmu-miR-721. Another biomarker, sera soluble ST2 (sST2), which has been found to be clinically useful in predicting heart failure, could be added to existing biomarkers used to diagnose patients with myocarditis, interpreted according to sex and age. And serial high-sensitivity troponin measurements might be another approach to diagnosing and monitoring myocarditis.

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After the switch: high-sensitivity troponin​

February 2022—Like growing old gracefully, moving to high-sensitivity cardiac troponin is both easier and more complex than it often appears. Stacy Beal, MD, thought clinical colleagues might be intimidated by switching assays. Dr. Beal was fully prepared to field worries about increased admissions, more consults, and other disaster scenarios. Instead, what surprised Dr. Beal, a member of the CAP Quality Practices Committee, was the ease with which some thought change could occur. “We heard people saying, ‘Just move the decimal point over two spots,’” she recalls. “I think we started hearing that from the day we started talking about it.” Could simply moving the decimal work? As Dr. Beal notes, “It’s hard to argue with that method, but we truly tried to tell them not to—that they needed to interpret this in a totally different way, and to view the different units as a new assay that’s very different from our previous assay.” “Maybe it’s our own fault,” Dr. Beal concedes. When the lab presented its correlation data, the new units were presented on one axis, while the old ones appeared on another.

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Higher CVD risk, or lower risk? hs-cTn in diabetes

October 2020—When Elizabeth Selvin, PhD, MPH, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, began her studies of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays, they had not yet been approved in the U.S., as they are now, for use in diagnosing myocardial infarction. But some of her studies and those of Amy K. Saenger, PhD, DABCC, medical director of clinical laboratories and director of clinical chemistry at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, take high-sensitivity cardiac troponin in a new direction by exploring its potential use as an aid in monitoring cardiovascular risk in the general population.

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No dawdle in switch to high-sensitivity troponin

December 2019—At Mayo Clinic, the latest generation of cardiac troponin assay was an overnight success. Literally. For months, the institution had been preparing to switch to Roche Diagnostics’ Elecsys Troponin T Gen 5 Stat assay, says Bradley S. Karon, MD, PhD, chair of the Division of Clinical Core Laboratory Services, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. As the time of the rollout neared, an internal medicine colleague who was involved in overseeing the transition asked, “‘What will the burn-in period be?’” recalls Dr. Karon, who is also co-director of Mayo’s stat labs and point-of-care testing programs. Surely clinicians would be able to continue ordering the Gen 4 assay for a time, right? So how long would that last? Dr. Karon’s dramatic-sounding answer? “Zero hours.”  

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Study ‘opens the door’ to troponin, diabetes link

May 2017—Clinicians and laboratories have only begun to wade into the depths of the FDA’s long-awaited clearance of a new-generation, high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) assay for rapid diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. Roche’s Elecsys TnT Gen 5 STAT assay received just such clearance in January. Yet researchers are already deep into investigations that may float new opportunities for high-sensitivity troponin T testing to the surface of medical diagnostics.

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HbA1c in CVD treatment: farewell to one size fits all

March 2017—Anchor. Central pillar. Cornerstone. It would be hard to find a weighty synonym for “linchpin” that hasn’t been used to describe HbA1c’s role in diabetes diagnosis and management since 2010, when the assay was recognized by key standard-setting organizations as the equal of fasting glucose and oral glucose tolerance testing in diabetes and prediabetes testing.

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More clarity over time for heart failure biomarkers

June 2016—Robert Christenson, PhD, a professor of pathology and of medical and research technology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, likens the U.S. mortality rate for myocardial infarction to three or four jumbo jets crashing daily. For heart failure, it’s about half that many deaths, “so maybe one and one-half jumbo jets,” Dr. Christenson said in a session on cardiac biomarkers at the CAP annual meeting last year.

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Heart biopsy the first step on a complex path

May 2016—The stories are haunting: a young, seemingly healthy athlete collapses on the playing field and dies. For Joseph Maleszewski, MD, section head of cardiovascular pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., these deaths also seem sadly familiar, especially given his work with the NCAA on such cases. “Every community, it seems, has a story,” says Dr. Maleszewski, who is also associate professor, laboratory medicine and pathology, and associate professor, medicine. “A child died on the basketball court, on the football field, while running track. These young athlete deaths are not uncommon at all—or even young nonathlete deaths.”

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Twilight zone for CVD risk markers?

February 2013—Times are tough all over. For the middle class, for newspapers, for François Hollande and his fellow French Socialists. Consider adding cardiac risk markers to that list. Despite decades of research and clinical experience, the marker conversation—what to measure, how, in whom—has become more an endless loop than a solid lineup. Old standbys still turn up in studies of novel markers, and tests that have arguably outlasted their usefulness still adhere, like barnacles, to laboratory menus. Some observers are even questioning the tenets of risk assessment.

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