Comparison of two latex agglutination test kits for serum myoglobin in the exclusion of acute myocardial infarction.

ABSTRACT

The Myolex (Orion) and the RapiTex (Behringwerke) latex agglutination tests for the rapid detection of elevated levels of serum myoglobin were studied prospectively in patients suspected of acute myocardial infarction, who were admitted to hospital within 8 h of pain onset. Using admission blood samples drawn 3.4 +/- 2.0 h (mean +/- SD) after onset of symptoms, the negative predictive values of both tests were too low to use these assays in the early exclusion of myocardial infarction in the emergency department. However, the negative predictive values obtained with the second blood samples, drawn 4 h later, indicated that the myoglobin agglutination test could be of value in the exclusion of myocardial infarction.