The BEST study

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    The Bedside Evaluation of Sensitive Troponin (BEST) study

  • IRAS ID

    148295

  • Contact name

    Malak Almashali

  • Contact email

    MALAKALMASHALI@HOTMAIL.COM

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 6 months, 29 days

  • Research summary

    When patients are admitted to hospital with suspected heart attacks they must often undergo blood tests both on arrival and up to 12 hours later before the diagnosis of heart attack can be excluded. With the best available laboratory-based tests for a biomarker called troponin, it may soon be possible to exclude this diagnosis as soon as 3 hours after arrival in the hospital. However, clinicians have to wait for 1-2 hours for the results of laboratory-based tests. Point of care troponin tests are now available to be used at the bedside. It is not known whether use of these point of care tests can exclude the diagnosis of heart attack after only 3 hours of patients presenting to the hospital. If they could, we may be able to safely reduce many unnecessary hospital admissions. We aim to invite patients who present to the Emergency Department with symptoms compatible with a possible heart attack to take part in this observational study. We will take blood samples on arrival and 3 hours later. We plan to store some sample so that we can evaluate new blood tests in future without repeating the entire study. Others will be immediately tested for troponin using a point of care device. We will also collect clinical information about participants (e.g. symptoms, previous history and electrical heart tracings or ECGs). Clinical care will not be affected. Participants will be asked to provide written informed consent. After checking mortality status, we will follow participants up (usually by telephone) after 30 days to determine whether they experienced any relevant clinical events after hospital discharge. The study database and samples will be pseudonymous, using only a unique study number to identify participants.

  • REC name

    North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    14/NW/1344

  • Date of REC Opinion

    29 Oct 2014

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion