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Introduction This article features a general background of the analytical characteristics associated with cardiac troponin testing. It addresses the following areas: Introduction to troponin What is the 99^th percentile upper reference limit (URL) and why do we use it? Determination of the 99^th percentile...

Introduction Since the first publications on cardiac troponin (cTn) in the 1970s, around 20.000 scientific reports on this powerful biomarker of myocardial injury have been published. Over time, cTn assays improved their analytical performance and became the designated biomarker for ruling out or ruling in acute...

In health plasma/serum potassium (K⁺) is maintained within the approximate reference range of 3.5 to 5.2 mmol/L, with serum values being slightly higher (∼ 0.4 mmol/L) than those of plasma because the process of blood clotting, essential to recovery of serum samples, is associated with release of potassium from...

Transfusion of donated (allogenic) red blood cells is of undoubted life-saving benefit to those suffering rapid and massive blood loss (hemorrhage) due to major trauma, or complications during surgery and childbirth. However, the procedure is not without risk, and accumulated evidence over the past 2 decades has...

Because measurements of GFR are tedious, estimated GFRs based on creatinine or cystatin C are widely used for assessing kidney function. Both measured GFRs and the Staging System for CKD based on GFR have analytical and clinical shortcomings. The advantages of serum creatinine and cystatin C, and eGFR will be...

The diagnosis of pulmonary embolism is challenging due to the non-specificity of signs and symptoms and the very busy Emergency Departments to which the overall majority of patients with suspected PE present. While several well-validated diagnostic algorithms exist and are readily available, it is known that in many...

This article explores the potential benefits of point-of-care testing in the ED. Price and St. John provide a detailed description on how to approach four common aspects of point-of-care testing (POCT) in the ED, specifically, the challenges of adopting POCT, the impact of POCT on clinical decisions, the impact of...

Summary The reference interval for a biochemical analyte is usually an interval of values bounded by the reference limit values at certain designated percentiles [1].  As always when choosing a cut-off, the value will determine the trade-off between clinical sensitivity and specificity. When a low cut-off is chosen,...

This paper is an up-to-date account of research and current clinical practice guideline recommendations. Chris Higgins summarizes the recommendations of 2 new guidance documents on the use of natriuretic peptides in heart failure. The first document is a systematic review of published research (up to 2016) on the role ...