Ischemia-modified albumin predicts short-term outcome and 1-year mortality in patients attending the emergency department for acute ischemic chest pain

The primary study aim was to determine whether ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) predicts adverse outcome in patients attending the emergency department (ED) with acute chest pain. Ischemia-modified albumin is a sensitive marker of myocardial ischemia. However, little is known about its ability to predict outcome in patients presenting to the ED with acute chest pain. We prospectively studied 207 patients who presented to the ED with acute chest pain suggestive of acute coronary syndrome within 3 h of the onset of symptoms. Blood samples for IMA assessment were obtained on admission. We evaluated a 30-day combined end point (cardiac death, myocardial infarction, recurrent angina) and 1-year all-cause mortality. A total of 31 (15%) patients experienced the 30-day composite end point and 16 patients (7.7%) died during the 1-year follow-up. Short-term combined end point (9.6% vs 20.4%, P = 0.03) and 1-year mortality rate (11.7% vs 3.8%, log rank 3.978, P = 0.046) were significantly higher in patients with IMA levels >93.3 U/ml compared to patients with lower IMA. On multivariate analysis, IMA remained an independent predictor of both 30-day combined end point (odds ratio 1.04, 95% confidence interval CI] 1.01–1.07, P = 0.01) and 1-year mortality (hazard ratio 1.038, 95% CI 1.006–1.070, P = 0.018). Ischemia-modified albumin is an independent predictor of short-and long-term adverse outcomes in patients presenting to the ED with typical acute chest pain. These authors contributed equally to this study.