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.”