New Cardiac Biomarker Improves Diagnosis of Acute Myocardial Infarction

A new cardiac biomarker could significantly improve early diagnosis of Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI).

Troponin T has been the best biomarker for AMI, but it takes considerable time before results are available, and the test needs to be repeated after six hours. A definitive diagnosis, therefore, requires some hours.

Copeptin, the new biomarker from B·R·A·H·M·S AG (Hennigsdorf, Germany) together with Troponin T, were studied for early detection of AMA. Unlike Troponin T, concentrations of Copeptin are highest right after the onset of symptoms and then begin to drop. This difference makes using the combination of the two extremely promising.

The study, which was led by Prof. Cristian Mueller from the Basel University Hospital (Basel, Switzerland), included 756 patients, and AMI was diagnosed in 131 of them. Dr. Tobias Reichlin from the internal medicine department of the hospital presented the results of the clinical study at the annual Congress of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in Orlando (FL, USA) in March 2009. He reported that Copeptin improved early diagnosis of AMA. The results indicated that by testing for both markers, along with an electrocardiogram (EKG) and clinical findings, approximately two-thirds of the patients would not need to wait the six hours in the emergency room for the second Troponin T test.

Copeptin is scheduled for fall introduction on the European market and joins a series of B·R·A·H·M·S biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases.

Related Links:
B·R·A·H·M·S AG
Basel University Hospital