A ONE-STEP IMMUNOTEST FOR RAPID DETECTION OF HEART-TYPE FATTY ACID-BINDING PROTEIN IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROMES.

Using heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP) as an early cardiac marker for diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) soon after the onset of symptoms requires a rapid assay. A one-step test called, CardioDetect®, is used for detection of H-FABP in whole blood sample. Thirty patients suspected of AMI presenting to the emergency department within 12 hours after onset were enrolled in this study. The diagnostic performance of CardioDetect® was compared with different cardiac markers. There were 59.1% of patients with positive H-FABP within 6 hours after onset, while there were only 18.2% with positive cardiac troponin I (cTnI). Results indicated the diagnostic power of H-FABP for AMI was significantly higher than that of cTnI. The sensitivity of H-FABP was 81.8%, which was higher than those of the other cardiac markers, while the specificity was comparable. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for H-FABP was 0.909, which was significantly larger than the others. With this rapid and sensitive immunotest, H-FABP could be soon introduced in clinical practice in combination with well-established markers like troponins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]