Predicting serious cardiac outcomes

Ischemia-modified albumin appears in the serum within minutes of ischemia, before myocete necrosis, and can be detected 6 hours or more after the onset of symptoms.

In this issue of CMAJ, Worster and colleagues describe how they evaluated the prognostic capabilities of high or low levels of ischemia-modified albumin in patients with potential cardiac-ischemia symptoms (within the preceding 6 hours) by recording outcomes such as death, myocardial infarction, heart failure, arrhythmia and refractory pain within 3 days of presentation. Their analysis, as underlined by Sabatine in a related commentary, showed that levels of ischemia-modified albumin provided no useful information in predicting which patients would have a serious cardiac outcome in the short term.

p. 1685 Capability of ischemia-modified albumin to predict serious cardiac outcomes in the short term among patients with potential acute coronary syndrome
– A. Worster et al

Link to article: http://www.cmaj.ca/misc/press/pg1685.pdf

p. 1697 When prognosis precedes diagnosis: putting the cart before the horse
– M. S. Sabatine

Link to article: http://www.cmaj.ca/misc/press/pg1697.pdf

---

---