Do we need to consider age and gender for accurate diagnosis of myocardial infarction?

According to the universal definition, a diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) can be made in the presence of a kinetic change of cardiac troponin (cTn) with at least one value above the 99th percentile of a healthy population together with clinical signs of myocardial ischemia. Thus, differences in 99th percentile cut-off values may have important diagnostic and therapeutic consequences for the correct AMI diagnosis. Following the introduction of high-sensitivity (hs) cTn assays with the ability to detect cTn in virtually every healthy individual, almost all available hs Tn assays suggest to use solitary 99th percentile cut-offs. However, several findings have questioned the use of a solitary cut-off for AMI diagnosis, as apparent age- and gender-dependent differences were found concerning the 99th percentile cut-off value. Moreover, there is an increasing number of studies which suggest a relevant diagnostic and prognostic benefit, when age- or gender-specific cut-offs values are used in comparison to general cut-offs. In contrast, other studies observed only a small impact on diagnostic reclassification and risk stratification. Given these ambiguous findings, there is currently no clear evidence for the use of age- and/or gender-dependent 99th percentiles. This review gives an overview of the rationale for gender- and age-dependent differences in cTn biomarker findings and discusses the implementation of these findings into clinical practice.