A multicenter prospective study on the ESC algorithm for the early diagnosis of non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction

This study aimed to determine the optimal high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI)-based algorithm for early diagnosis of non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) in Chinese patients. We prospectively enrolled 1,606 patients with suspected NSTEMI from three emergency departments across China, collecting blood samples at 0, 1, and 3 h post-admission. Patients were classified using the 0/1-h and 0/3-h algorithms. The 2015 and 2020 ESC 0/1-h algorithms rapidly triaged 70% of patients with high negative predictive value (NPV) (99.7%) and sensitivity (99.5%). The 0/3-h algorithm showed higher specificity (93.8%) but lower NPV (96.8%) and sensitivity (91.2%). An optimized 0/1-h algorithm improved specificity to 92.1% while maintaining high NPV (99.7%) and sensitivity (99.2%). Low 30-day and 180-day all-cause mortality and major adverse cardiac event (MACE) rates were observed in rule-out groups for all algorithms. The ESC 0/1-h algorithm is a safe and efficient triage method for patients with suspected NSTEMI, with optimization further enhancing specificity and efficiency for the Chinese population.