Determination of decision limits for ACS : Systems cardiac troponin I

The availability of specific markers of myocardial damage has focused atten tion on the decision limits to be used in clinical practice. These markers can be employed in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction and risk stratifi cation in patients with acute coronary syndromes but no infarction. The mea surement of troponin I was undertaken in two 60 patient cohorts with these disease classifications. The best decision level for patients with acute my ocardial infarction was found to be 3.1 mug/l; for the detection of minimal myocardial damage the cut-off was equal to the detection limit of the meth od (0.2 mug/l).