High-sensitivity cardiac troponins in everyday clinical practice

Table 1 Analytical characteristics of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays

The analytical lower limit of detection is in the range of single digits of ng/L and is markedly lower than the upper reference limit

Hs-cTn assays have high precision in routine use at lower concentration ranges with analytical CV < 10% at the 99th percentile concentration of the reference population

Hs-cTn assays enable detection of cTn in a significant proportion of the reference population, thereby allowing for a more accurate calculation of the 99th percentile URL with its 95% confidence interval

Hs-cTn assays must be highly specific for the detection of cardiac cTn isoforms

Hs-cTn: High-sensitivity cardiac troponin; CV: Coefficient of variation; URL: Upper reference limit.