Multimarker panel in patients admitted to emergency department: A comparison with reference methods

Objectives: Point of care testing and multimarker panels are rapidly expanding in emergency departments. We determined the reliability of Short-of-Breath SOB (R), panel in patients admitted for acute dyspnea and/or chest pain. Design and methods: SOB (R), D-dimer, BNP, cTnl, CK-MB and myoglobin assays were compared with references in 97 outpatients. Results: The correlation between SOB (R),, and references methods was acceptable, but With limited precision and accuracy. Conclusions: Diagnostic performances and cut-off values should be further validated before clinicians replace traditional cardio-respiratory biomarkers by the new SOB (R), panel. (C) 2008 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.