Circulating microRNA-1 in the diagnosis and predicting prognosis of patients with chest pain: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: To investigate the early diagnostic and prognostic value of microRNA-1 in patients with acute chest pain. METHODS: This study enrolled 341 patients attacked by chest pain within 3 h, and another 100 volunteers as control group. Circulating microRNA-1 was collected and determined by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The clinical follow-up period was 720 days. RESULTS: There were 174 patients in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) group, 167 in non-AMI group. The relative expression of microRNA-1 was significantly increased within 3 h in AMI group, and it continued rising within 12 h, lower at 24 h than that 12 h in AMI group without reperfusion therapy. Otherwise, microRNA-1 concentration was markedly low at 12 h after primary percutaneous coronary intervention in AMI group. The 95% reference range of circulating microRNA-1 was 0.171–0.653. It was significantly available for microRNA-1 to early diagnose AMI with an optimal cutoff value of 2.215 and diagnostic accuracy could be improved when combined with cardiac troponin I. It was not statistically significant for microRNA-1 to forecast future AMI but might prognose mortality of 720 days in chest pain patients. In patients with chest pain, microRNA-1 concentration was high with major adverse cardiac events within 30 days, low with high overall survival within 720 days. CONCLUSIONS: Circulating microRNA-1 might diagnose early AMI and predict the prognosis of patients with chest pain.