Pa. Gurbel et al., Role of soluble and platelet-bound P-selectin in discriminating cardiac from noncardiac chest pain at presentation in the emergency department, AM HEART J, 139(2), 2000, pp. 320-328
Citations number
48
Categorie Soggetti
Cardiovascular & Respiratory Systems","Cardiovascular & Hematology Research
Background it has been reported that selectins participate in the pathogene
sis of acute coronary syndromes by modulating platelet-leukocyte-endotheliu
m interactions. Elevated P-selectin level also has been observed in the cli
nical setting of myocardial ischemia and reperfusion; however, its utility
in differentiating cardiac from noncardiac origins of chest pain is unknown
.
Methods and Results soluble and platelet fractions of P-selectin were measu
red For 122 patients with chest pain and 14 healthy persons acting as contr
ols. Patients with a cardiac problem (unstable angina, congestive heart fai
lure, acute myocardial infarction) had significantly elevated levels of sol
uble P-selectin (156.0 +/- 58.8 ng/mL P = .002) and platelet-bound P-select
in (11.7% +/- 6.4% positive cells, P = .013) compared with the P-selectin p
rofile among controls (102.6 +/- 29.0 ng/ml, 4.1% +/- 1.2% positivity) and
among patients with noncardiac chest pain (114.7 +/- 36.6 ng/ml, 5.7% +/- 2
.9% positivity). With a cutpoint of 10% positivity for membrane and 120 ng/
ml for soluble P-selectin, the sensitivities were 0.442 and 0.558, and the
specificities were 0.915 and 0.553.
Conclusions When a patient arrives in the emergency department, measurement
of membrane P-selectin may serve as an additional diagnostic tool to detec
t heightened platelet activity, which is most prevalent among patients with
a cardiac origin of chest pain. However, low sensitivity limits the utilit
y of the P-selectin profile alone in suitably differentiating acute coronar
y syndromes within the overall population of patients with chest pain.