Troponin testing aids in heart attack diagnosis

Beginning in 2019, Campbell County Health (CCH) was one of the first hospitals in the nation to begin utilizing a blood test called high-sensitivity troponin (hs-troponin). The test is usually used in an emergency department to diagnose heart attacks in the early stages.

Heart attacks are often diagnosed using an EKG (electrocardiogram), but in many patients the EKG is not abnormal in the early hours of a heart attack. The hs-troponin test is the most sensitive test developed so far for diagnosing a heart attack. A final diagnosis can be accurately made in as little as one to three hours.

The test is so accurate that if the hs-troponin test is normal, the chances that a patient in the Campbell County Memorial Hospital Emergency Department is having a heart attack are well under 1%.

After CCH started using this blood test a number of our regional hospitals followed suit, and it is quickly becoming the standard of care across the United States, helping us provide better, safer care for our patients—saving heart muscle and lives.

Learn more about hs-troponin by talking with our Cardiologists at 307-688-3700. Visit www.cchwyo.org/heart.