Point-of-care analyzers provide diagnostic results within minutes and are widely used in emergency rooms and other clinical settings, facilitating faster therapeutic decisions and improved patient outcomes. A recent study in JAMA Cardiology assessed the diagnostic performance of the I-Stat TnI-Nx from Abbott Point of Care and found that this novel cardiac troponin assay done at the patient's bedside could rule out heart attacks earlier.
Heart failure is the main cause of hospitalization among older Americans, and at least 50 percent of these patients are readmitted to the hospital within six months of discharge. Emergency departments are under constant pressure to deliver timely and efficient cardiac care which improves patient outcomes. Centralized testing delays results and prevents physicians from making quick treatment decisions. Rapid point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tests are the answer to getting critical results more easily and quickly, allowing physicians to identify high risk patients sooner, and provide appropriate treatment to help optimize health outcomes.
Abbott recently reported on a study that analyzed the validity of their point-of-care Troponin assay for single-test rule-out of acute myocardial infarction (MI). Researchers evaluated 354 adults 18 years and older who entered an emergency department with symptoms of acute coronary syndrome, such as a heart attack. The patients' cardiac troponin levels were measured using two Abbott (NYSE: ABT) blood tests: the ARCHITECT High Sensitive Troponin-I (hsTnI) and the i-STAT TnI-Nx, a point-of-care diagnostic test under development.
The study found that this new blood test under development that is done right at the patient's side in as little as 15 minutes could identify nearly three-fifths (56.7 percent) of people at low-risk of experiencing a heart attack, similar to the results of a High Sensitive Troponin-I blood test done in the laboratory setting.
This new point-of-care blood test could help physicians streamline how patients are triaged in the emergency room by reducing the time it takes to rule out a heart attack and accelerating a safe discharge for low-risk patients- all with an accuracy comparable to a high sensitive cardiac troponin test used in a core-laboratory.
While Abbott's i-STAT® cardiac troponin test has been used in hospitals globally to help aid the physician in diagnosing heart attacks, right at the patient's bedside, the company's new point-of-care test is still under development.
Matt Bates, divisional vice president of research and development for point-of-care diagnostics at Abbott, said, "When designing Abbott's newest point-of-care cardiac testing, we wanted to combine the benefits of higher-sensitivity troponin tests with the speed of results when it matters most. This initial data will help guide our research and development of the next generation of cardiac testing to help physicians and emergency departments make timely decisions with confidence."