Admission risk assessment by cardiac troponin T in unstable coronary artery disease: additional prognostic information from continuous ST segment monitoring

OBJECTIVES We investigated whether the addition of 24 h of continuous vectorcardiography ST segment monitoring (cVST) for an early (within 24 h of the latest episode of angina) determination of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) could provide additional prognostic information in patients with unstable coronary artery disease (UCAD), i.e., unstable angin and non–Q wave myocardial infarction. BACKGROUND Determination of cTnT at admission and cVST are individually reported to be valuable techniques for the risk assessment of patients with UCAD. METHODS Two hundred and thirty-two patients suspected of UCAD were studied. Patients were followed for 30 days, and the occurrence of cardiac death or acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were registered. RESULTS One ST segment episode or more (relative risk [RR] 7.43, p = 0.012), cTnT level ≥0.20 μg/liter (RR 3.85, p = 0.036) or prestudy medication with calcium antagonists (RR 3.31, p = 0.041) were found to carry independent prognostic information after multivariate analysis of potential risk variables. By combining cTnT determination and subsequent cVST for 24 h, subgroups of patients at high (25.8%) (n = 31), intermediate (3.1%) (n = 65) and low risk (1.7%) (n = 117) of death or AMI could be identified. CONCLUSIONS Twenty-four hours of cVST provides additional prognostic information to that of an early cTnT determination in patients suspected of having UCAD. The combination of biochemical and electrocardiographic methods provides powerful and accurate risk stratification in UCAD.