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The study which was undertaken in Sweden showed that patients having chest pain and had undetectable level of some chemical in their blood known as ‘high- sensitivity cardiac troponin T’ and no signs of reduced flow of blood had very minimal risk of being diagnosed with a heart attack for the next month. According to those who did this study, they strongly believe that the test can really help a lot in providing numerous hospital admissions that are unnecessary.

Chest pain might not always mean heart attack

Chest pain is indeed a life threatening symptom and it is also very common as well, noted Dr. Nadia Bandstein, the lead author. He noted that at his hospital, chest pain was listed second among the symptoms that were commonly reported to the emergency department. Considering that there are no ways that are established to rule out the possibility of a heart attack quickly, most of the patients end up being unnecessarily admitted to the hospital and this is at a cost not only to the patient but also to the society at large.

The researcher noted that by using the blood tested together with an electrocardiogram/ ECG, it is possible to save between 500 and 100 admissions every year at the hospital. This would in turn allow them to use these beds for catering to other sicker patients. More research is, however, required still. The experts were quick to note that until these studies have been published, they will be considered preliminary. The researchers continued to explain that doctors can detect a high sensitivity of cardiac troponin as this chemical can help them dictate if there is a heart damage or not.

Reducing the risk for heart attack

This new factor is relatively new in the diagnosis of heart attack and it is possible to detect it in the blood few hours before the older methods used to measure troponin. According to the current guidelines available, it is recommended that a high sensitivity of cardiac troponin T is tested about three hours after one starts to experience the chest pain. The implication of this is that the patient needs to be taken to the hospital. According to the authors of the study, their findings showed that just one test is needed and this can help a lot in preventing hospital admissions that are unnecessary.

This study seems to provide more evidence to the importance of using high sensitivity cardiac troponin T selectively in order to evaluate those patients having chest pain for signs of any possible heart attack. Knowing this is very important since having negative troponin test or a single normal one doesn’t eliminate the risk of a heart attack completely after being discharged from the ER.