Diagnostic accuracy of sensitive or high-sensitive troponin on presentation for myocardial infarction: a meta-analysis and systematic review

Background: Recently, high-sensitive troponin (hsTrop) assays consistent with professional societies' recommendations became available. We aimed to summarize the evidence on the diagnostic accuracy of hsTrop on presentation.

Methods: We searched electronic databases for studies evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of hsTrop in suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients. Random effect meta-analyses and meta-regression were performed. Primary and secondary analyses were restricted to studies using conventional Trop and hsTrop in the reference standard, respectively.

Results: Fifteen studies with a total of 8,628 patients met the inclusion criteria for the primary analysis. hsTrop T (Hoffman-La Roche Ltd) and hsTrop I (Siemens) had sensitivities of 0.89 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.86-0.91) and 0.90 (95% CI: 0.87-0.92) and specificities of 0.79 (95% CI: 0.77-0.80) and 0.89 (95% CI: 0.87-0.90), respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the area under the curve between hsTrop (95% CI: 0.920) and conventional Trop (95% CI: 0.929) at the 99th percentile (P=0.62). hsTrop at the level of detection had a sensitivity of 0.97 (95% CI: 0.96-0.98) and a specificity of 0.41 (95% CI: 0.40-0.42). The studies using a cut-off at coefficient of variance <10% as opposed to the 99th percentile for the conventional assay used for diagnosis reported higher diagnostic accuracy (relative diagnostic odds ratio =2.13, P=0.02). Five studies were included in the secondary analysis; hsTrop T (Hoffman-La Roche Ltd) had a sensitivity of 0.91 (95% CI: 0.89-0.93) and a specificity of 0.67 (95% CI: 0.63-0.70). There was significant heterogeneity among the studies.

Conclusion: hsTrop have excellent diagnostic accuracy for myocardial infarction on presentation, but may not outperform conventional Trop assays. The variation among the studies can be explained, in part, by the cut-off used for conventional Trop assays.