Acute pijn op de borst en niet-afwijkend troponine

In patients presenting with acute chest pain, acute myocardial infarction should first be ruled out as a cause as these patients will often need coronary revascularisation. In the remaining patients, those with normal high-sensitivity cardiac troponin levels should undergo additional cardiac investigations to discriminate patients with an episode of unstable angina pectoris from those who have a non-cardiac cause of the chest pain. In the large majority (86%), the medical history does not raise suspicion of angina pectoris and an exercise test will show normal results; in these patients, further cardiac imaging does not seem to be indicated. In conclusion, less cardiac imaging and more non-cardiac investigations are required in patients with acute chest pain and normal high-sensitivity cardiac troponin levels.