Key result
hs-cTn 99th percentile limits vary significantly by assay brand, gender, and age.
Why the study?
Cardiac troponin values above the 99th percentile upper reference limit indicate myocardial injury, motivating the establishment of 99th percentile URLs for three high-sensitivity assays in a healthy Korean population.
What are the 99th percentile upper reference limits for three high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays in a healthy Korean population, and do they vary by age and gender?
Cross-Sectional (n=623)
No
What are the 99th percentile upper reference limits for three high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays in a healthy Korean population, and do they vary by age and gender?
The 99th percentile upper reference limits for high-sensitivity cardiac troponin vary significantly by age and gender, suggesting that age- and sex-specific cutoffs may reduce false-positive rates in older populations.
Age- and sex-specific hs-cTn 99th percentiles may refine interpretation in Koreans; leaves open prospective outcome validation before adoption.
BACKGROUND: Cardiac troponin (cTn) values above the 99th percentile upper reference limit (URL) indicate myocardial injury. We established 99th percentile URLs for three high-sensitivity cTn (hs-cTn) assays (Beckman Coulter Access hs-cTnI, Abbott STAT hs-cTnI, and Roche Elecsys hs-cTnT) using a healthy population in Korea. METHODS: Each cTn value was measured by three assays and analyzed by dividing by gender and age. RESULTS: The frequency histograms of log-transformed cTn values for Beckman and Abbott assays exhibited a bell-shaped distribution. The 99th percentile URLs were 9.8, 17.4, and 17.3 ng/L in the total population; 10.9/9.0, 18.9/17.0, and 18.9/17.7 ng/L in the male/female population (p < 0.001 for all three assays); and 11.2/7.2, 19.9/14.5, and 22.7/9.3 ng/L in the older/younger population (p < 0.001 for all three assays) for Beckman, Abbott, and Roche assays, respectively. CONCLUSION: Among the three assays, bell-shaped distributions were observed in a frequency histogram of log-transformed cTn values for healthy population in Beckman and Abbott assays. Also, our findings show that the 99th percentile URLs for cTn levels vary not only by gender but age.
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Cho et al. (2022) conducted a cross-sectional in Healthy (n=623). High-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays (Beckman hs-cTnI, Abbott hs-cTnI, Roche hs-cTnT) was evaluated on 99th percentile upper reference limit (URL) of cTn. The 99th percentile upper reference limits for Beckman, Abbott, and Roche high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays were 9.8, 17.4, and 17.3 ng/L, respectively, and varied significantly by gender and age.
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