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A point-of-care cardiac troponin test could meaningfully speed up care for patients with suspected heart attacks. A large New Zealand trial found the bedside test cut emergency department stays by 47 minutes on average — a 13% reduction — compared to standard lab testing. Crucially, 30-day rates of heart attack or cardiac death among discharged patients were identical between both groups.
A new study suggests that bringing cardiac troponin testing to the bedside — rather than sending samples to a central lab — could significantly streamline care for patients arriving at the ER with possible heart attacks. The trial, published in Circulation, found that point-of-care high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI) testing reduced emergency department (ED) length of stay by 13%, shaving nearly 47 minutes off the average visit.
The stepped-wedge cluster-randomized trial tracked nearly 60,000 ED presentations across six New Zealand hospitals over two years. Hospitals gradually switched from standard lab-based troponin testing to a point-of-care device as the default — and the efficiency gains were clear. Patients were consistently more likely to be discharged within 1 to 6 hours of arrival under the new approach.
By the Numbers
Why it matters: Overcrowded EDs are a persistent challenge worldwide. A faster, equally safe diagnostic pathway for one of the most common — and high-stakes — ED presentations could ease bottlenecks and improve patient outcomes at scale.
