The point-of-care D-dimer test provides a fast and accurate differential diagnosis of Stanford Type A aortic syndrome and ST-elevated myocardial infarction in emergencies

Abstract Background The research of the sensitivity and specificity point-of-care testing (POCT) of D-dimer as a diagnostic protocol for differential diagnosis of Stanford Type A aortic syndrome (hereafter as TAAS) mimicking ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) with regular STEMI in the emergency department is limited. Methods Full medical information of 32 patients confirmed TAAS and 527 patients confirmed STEMI from January 1st, 2016 to October 1st, 2021 were retrospectively analyzed in Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital of Tongji University. Results The baseline characteristics of two groups of patients were well-balanced post propensity score matching (PSM) analysis, and each group had 32 patients enrolled. Patients in the STEMI group had higher positive cardiac troponin I (cTNI) (0.174 ng/ml vs. 0.055 ng/ml, P = 0.008) results but lower D-dimer (0.365μg/ml vs. 31.50μg/ml, P