Improved Cardiac Patient Management through Cardiac Markers Napredak U Le^enju Sr^anih Bolesnika Zahvaljuju]i Upotrebi Sr^anih Markera

Troponin, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and homocysteine are markers for the diagnosis and characterization of cardiac diseases. While cardiac troponin assays are established tools for exclusion of coronary disease, MPO is a new powerful marker for the identification of high risk patients with atherosclerotic plaque ruptures. Homocysteine is a versatile marker for cardiovascular events and dementia. Abbott Diagnostic offers automated troponin and homocysteine assays on the Architect and Axsym platforms. A full automated MPO assay is available on the Architect. Troponin today is regarded as the myocardial infarction (MI) marker of choice. Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and cardiac troponin T (cTnT) are myofibrillar proteins of heart muscle cells released when cells are damaged in the course of myocardischemia. Due to their specificity they are the preferred biochemical markers for determining myocardial cell damage. A range of commercial assays is available for measuring cTnI and cTnT. A clear determination of a cardiovascular disease, however, is only possible with troponin assays featuring high clinical sensitivity. According to the ESC/ACC (European Society of Cardiology/American College of Cardiology) Consensus Guidelines the 99th percentile is recommended as cut-off. To evaluate the clinical significance of the different assay systems, James et al. measured cardiac troponin concentrations UDK 577.1 : 61 ISSN 1452-8258