Clinical Evaluation of Point‐of‐Care‐Testing of Heart‐Type Fatty Acid‐Binding Protein (H‐FABP) for the Diagnosis of Acute Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

The present study was carried out for clinical evaluation of point‐of‐care‐testing (POCT) of heart‐type fatty acid‐binding protein (H‐FABP), Rapicheck H‐FABP, for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), in comparison with conventional cardiac biochemical markers such as myoglobin, creatine kinase isoenzyme MB (CK‐MB), and cardiac troponin T. Whole blood samples from patients with confirmed AMI (n=53), patients with non‐AMI cardiac diseases (n=24), and patients with non‐cardiac diseases with chest pain (n=6) were used. When a test line appeared within 15 min after the addition of 150 µL of whole blood, it was designated to be positive for H‐FABP. A control line indicates a proper use of the test. On the other hand, when no test line appeared, it was negative. In the superacute phase of AMI within 3 hours, the diagnostic sensitivity of H‐FABP was 93.1%, which was the highest of the four markers compared here. The diagnostic specificity in the phase for H‐FABP was 64.3%, while it was 100% with cardiac troponin T. The POCT of H‐FABP is thought to be practical for the detection of cardiac damage and effective for the diagnosis of AMI in superacute phase within 3 hours and/or 6 hours.

Keywords:

• Rapicheck H‐FABP
• Fatty acid‐binding protein
• Immunochromatography
• Panel test
• Point‐of‐care‐testing (POCT)