In recent years, researchers have documented a decline in progress in reducing morbidity and mortality for cardiovascular diseases.⁷ Although cardiovascular diseases present different challenges depending on whether the patient is experiencing an acute condition or a chronic disease, timely and accurate diagnosis is an important issue for both. In the case of acute cardiovascular disease, timely intervention can substantially improve patient outcomes, while delaying care may lead to avoidable death or disability.⁸ It is also well-established that patients with chronic cardiovascular diseases are more likely to experience acute cardiovascular conditions. Despite that, between 20% and 40% of heart attacks occur in patients with previously undiagnosed cardiovascular disease, 20% with undiagnosed hypertension (high blood pressure), and 30% undiagnosed hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol, triglycerides, and/or other fats in the blood).⁷

There are many contributing factors outside of clinicians’ control that may interfere with diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases, including systemic problems that prevent or delay patients in seeking or accessing care.⁸ However, even once a patient seeks care, clinicians face diagnostic challenges because symptoms of cardiovascular diseases are complex, vary between patients, and often overlap.⁹ In addition, emergency departments experience high patient volume with complex diseases in an environment with limited time, capacity, and resources. 

Efficient and fast patient triage is key in the emergency department: clinicians must prioritize high-risk patients, make safe discharge decisions, reduce unnecessary testing, prevent infection transmission, and above all, initiate appropriate treatment as soon as possible. Out of all emergency department visits, chest pain is responsible for up to 8%, with 15% to 25% of those patients experiencing heart attack (acute myocardial infarction, or AMI).¹⁰ Therefore, it is extremely important to be able to quickly and accurately diagnose or rule out heart attack as part of patient triage.

Accurate diagnosis equips clinicians to provide appropriate treatment for patients with cardiovascular diseases. bioMérieux provides innovative tests for acute and complex situations to deliver fast, actionable results. Our VIDAS^® range of immunoassays includes several different biomarkers, along with validated result interpretation algorithms, that are helpful for diagnosing and assessing patients for acute coronary syndrome and heart failure.

The new generation of highly sensitive troponin assays can detect very small increases in cardiac troponin. This high sensitivity to low troponin levels and to small variations in troponin concentration helps clinicians diagnose myocardial infarction accurately and reliably (whether confirmation or exclusion) in most patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain.

Additionally, in patients diagnosed with heart failure, prognostic information on future risk for hospital readmission and/or death is useful for both caregivers and patients. Prognostic information may assist clinicians in planning discharge decisions, the intensity of follow-up visits, and with patient management decisions concerning further medical or surgical intervention. bioMérieux offers biomarkers such as VIDAS^® NT-proBNP that have been shown to provide incremental independent prognostic information. 

To address the challenges of diagnosing and managing cardiovascular diseases, including acute coronary syndrome and heart failure, bioMérieux provides a range of biomarkers on our trusted VIDAS^® platforms, along with validated result interpretation algorithms and clinical decision trees to support accurate and reliable biomarker usage.