Myeloperoxidase is not useful for the early assessment of patients with chest pain

BackgroundMyeloperoxidase (MPO) has been listed as a potentially useful risk marker in acute coronary syndrome. However, its clinical utility in patients with acute chest pain is not yet defined.Design and methodsMPO (Architect, Abbott Diagnostics) was measured in 120 healthy controls and 303 chest pain patients who had been admitted to the coronary care units of three Swedish hospitals.ResultsChest pain patents had significantly higher median MPO levels compared to healthy controls (120.6 vs. 78. 9 pmol/L; p < 0.001). However, MPO was not useful for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction (c-statistics 0.61 [95% CI 0.54–0.67]), and Cox regression analysis revealed no independent association between MPO and mortality (adjusted hazard ratio 1.3 [95% CI 0.8–2.0]) or the composite endpoint (adjusted hazard ratio 1.1 [95% CI 0.8–1.5]) after a median follow-up of 4.9 years.ConclusionsMPO provided no clinically relevant information in the present population of chest pain patients.