Point of Care (POC) Biomarkers of Ischemia

Acute coronary syndrome is defined as myocardial infarction or ischemia as evidenced by significant coronary artery disease on cardiac catheterization/revascularization or reversible defect seen on stress test. Each year approximately 8-10 million patients undergo an emergency department evaluation for possible acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in the United States Up to 8%of patients who have myocardial infarction (MI) are inadvertently discharged. Unnecessary admissions for presumed myocardial disease result in health care costs that are estimated to exceed 5 billion dollars annually Currently, the cardiac biomarkers troponin and Creatine phosphokinase (CPK-MB), in conjunction with ECG changes are used to evaluate a patient routinely for ACS. However, these tests have limitations for identifying most patients who have ACS in a rapid fashion. Purine molecules such as inosine and hypoxanthine and have been shown to also be biomarkers of acute MI. High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) is the traditional method of analysis of these purines. The HPLC method however requires hours to assess biomarkers, as do the more traditionally used troponin and CK-MB methods. Recently, the investigator has developed a rapid chemo luminescence method for detecting purine biomarkers. This modality can provide an expeditious (requires less than 4 minutes to complete analysis), bedside method of analysis for ACS through routinely acquired blood samples. In this study the investigator will compare the results of the chemo luminescence method with the gold standard HPLC method, and results of the traditional cardiac markers troponin and Creatine phosphokinase (CK-MB) in patients undergoing an evaluation for ACS. Details of noninvasive and invasive cardiac assessments performed as part of the routine evaluation by the clinician for myocardial assessment and intervention in conjunction with biomarker assessment will be obtained. The investigator hypothesize that the rapid chemo luminescence biomarker assessment will identify patients with ACS faster than traditional diagnostic methods. The goal of this study is to assess the role of rapid assessment of purine biomarkers in identifying patients who may have ACS.