Prehospital point-of-care biomarkers: missing link in acute myocardial infarction?

Abstract

Coronary heart disease is a leading cause of death worldwide. Paramedics are instrumental in the treatment, triage and transport of patients experiencing acute coronary syndromes and acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Paramedics currently rely on prehospital electrocardiography and patient symptomology to diagnose AMI, which may result in missed diagnoses. Point-of-care biomarkers such as cardiac troponin (cTnT) and copeptin may have the potential to increase the diagnostic capabilities of prehospital providers. Multiple electronic databases (MAG Online Library, Cochrane Library, PubMed and Embase) were searched to evaluate the feasibility and potential application of cardiac biomarkers cTnT and copeptin in the prehospital setting. Because of the paucity of evidence, this article explores the evidence on the dual-marker strategy of cTnT and copeptin to increase diagnostic capabilities of prehospital providers, and as an adjunct for decision-making and risk stratification for AMI. The evidence suggests that using the combined dual-marker strategy of cTnT and copeptin may counteract limitations of the ‘troponin-blind’ period of cTnT and the low cardiac specificity of copeptin. However, the research for this method is still in its infancy and requires investigation into its feasibility and affordability as well as into the training required to implement it in paramedic practice.