Economic Evaluation of a Heart-Type Fatty Acid Binding Protein Based Protocol for Rapid Chest Pain Assessment

Chest pain is the most common reason for emergency hospital admission. As only a minority of these patients have acute myocardial infarction (AMI), improved diagnostics could reduce admissions with substantial potential cost savings. We have derived a novel accelerated diagnostic protocol (ADP), by which patients with normal initial heart-type fatty acid binding protein(H-FABP) and high sensitivity troponin T (hs-cTnT) levelsand no ECG ischemia could be immediately discharged. In an economic analysis, we sought to determine whether use of the ADP would reduce health care costs.