Distribution of highly senstive troponin in critical care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Distribution of Highly Sensitive Troponin in the Critically Unwell and Associated Mortality - The DIGNITY Study
IRAS ID
250338
Contact name
Nicholas Curzen
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 31 days
Research summary
The current diagnostic criteria for a heart attack require evaluation of a patient's symptoms and ECG but importantly a blood test called troponin. With advancing technology this test has become more sensitive and is now called a high sensitivity troponin. This is a very effective way of rapidly excluding a heart attack if the test is negative. However there are a number of causes of a raised high sensitivity other than a heart attack, particularly critical illness states. This can leave clinicians uncertain of the cause of a positive result and could result in patients being wrongly treated for a heart attack. This is especially relevant in critical care because patients are often unable to tell clinicians whether they have chest pain. In the absence of features of a heart attack an abnormal result suggests that the heart is inflamed or unwell causing the release of high sensitivity troponin.
The DIGNITY study will examine the consequences of high sensitivity troponin elevation in patients admitted to any of the three adult critical care areas (general, cardiac and neurosciences) at a large teaching hospital and assess whether it has a role as a biomarker for predicting outcome. The clinical course and changes in high sensitivity troponin will be followed during the intensive care admission to see whether changes in the result reflect the patient’s clinical progress.REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 2
REC reference
18/ES/0118
Date of REC Opinion
23 Oct 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion