Frequency histograms of three high‐sensitivity cardiac troponin assays in a reference population

BACKGROUND: Cardiac troponin (cTn) values above the 99th percentile upper reference limit (URL) indicate myocardial injury. We established 99th percentile URLs for three high‐sensitivity cTn (hs‐cTn) assays (Beckman Coulter Access hs‐cTnI, Abbott STAT hs‐cTnI, and Roche Elecsys hs‐cTnT) using a healthy population in Korea. METHODS: Each cTn value was measured by three assays and analyzed by dividing by gender and age. RESULTS: The frequency histograms of log‐transformed cTn values for Beckman and Abbott assays exhibited a bell‐shaped distribution. The 99th percentile URLs were 9.8, 17.4, and 17.3 ng/L in the total population; 10.9/9.0, 18.9/17.0, and 18.9/17.7 ng/L in the male/female population (p < 0.001 for all three assays); and 11.2/7.2, 19.9/14.5, and 22.7/9.3 ng/L in the older/younger population (p < 0.001 for all three assays) for Beckman, Abbott, and Roche assays, respectively. CONCLUSION: Among the three assays, bell‐shaped distributions were observed in a frequency histogram of log‐transformed cTn values for healthy population in Beckman and Abbott assays. Also, our findings show that the 99th percentile URLs for cTn levels vary not only by gender but age.