Clinical and financial impact of removing creatine kinase-MB from the routine testing menu in the emergency setting

Limited Contribution of Creatine Kinase-Myocardial Band Alongside High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin in Diagnosing Acute Myocardial Infarction in an Emergency Department

Cardiac biomarkers, especially high-sensitivity cardiac troponin C or I (hs-cTnC or hs-cTnI, respectively), are vital for diagnosing acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Despite the specificity of hs-cTn as a biomarker, the creatine kinase-myocardial band (CK-MB) is commonly used alongside hs-cTn in emergency departments (EDs). We analyzed 23,771 simultaneous hs-cTn (hs-cTnT or hs-cTnI) and CK-MB requests for 17,185 patients in tertiary hospital ED in 2022. The objective of this study was to assess their practical value in diagnosing AMI in real-world settings. Among all 17,185 patients tested, 98.0% underwent hs-cTnT and CK-MB tests, and substantially fewer underwent hs-cTnI testing. We observed concordance between the initial hs-cTn and CK-MB results in 71.3% of patients. Of 131 AMI cases, 57 were positive for both biomarkers, 63 for hs-cTn only, and none for CK-MB alone. CK-MB positivity was often found in the absence of AMI. Discrepancies between the hs-cTnT and hs-cTnI results occurred in 30.0% of patients. Indiscriminate CK-MB testing for diagnosing AMI in EDs should be reconsidered. Efficient use of CK-MB is important for reducing costs and ensuring optimal patient care.

A Novel Biomarker Scoring System Alone or in Combination with the GRACE Score for the Prognostic Assessment in Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Purpose

Patients and Methods

Results

Conclusion

Choosing Wisely in Adult Hospital Medicine: Co-creation of New Recommendations for Improved Healthcare Value by Clinicians and Patient Advocates

BACKGROUND

The American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation's Choosing Wisely campaign has resulted in a vast number of recommendations to reduce low-value care. Implementation of these recommendations, in conjunction with patient input, remains challenging.

OBJECTIVE

To create updated Society of Hospital Medicine Adult Hospitalist Choosing Wisely recommendations that incorporate patient input from inception.

DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS

This was a multi-phase study conducted by the Society of Hospital Medicine's High Value Care Committee from July 2017 to January 2020 involving clinicians and patient advocates.

APPROACH

Phase 1 involved gathering low-value care recommendations from patients and clinicians across the USA. Recommendations were reviewed by the committee in phase 2. Phase 3 involved a modified Delphi scoring in which 7 committee members and 7 patient advocates voted on recommendations based on strength of evidence, potential for patient harm, and relevance to either hospital medicine or patients. A patient-friendly script was developed to allow advocates to better understand the clinical recommendations.

KEY RESULTS

A total of 1265 recommendations were submitted by clinicians and patients. After accounting for similar suggestions, 283 recommendations were categorized. Recommendations with more than 10 mentions were advanced to phase 3, leaving 22 recommendations for the committee and patient advocates to vote upon. Utilizing a 1-5 Likert scale, the top combined recommendations were reducing use of opioids (4.57), improving sleep (4.52), minimizing overuse of oxygen (4.52), reducing CK-MB use (4.50), appropriate venous thromboembolism prophylaxis (4.43), and decreasing daily chest x-rays (4.43).

CONCLUSIONS

Specific voting categories, along with the use of patient-friendly language, allowed for the successful co-creation of recommendations.

Reducing redundant creatine kinase testing in cardiac injury

Background

Creatine kinase (CK) testing in the setting of suspected cardiac injury is commonly performed yet rarely provides clinical value beyond troponin testing. We sought to evaluate and reduce CK testing coupled with troponin testing by 50% or greater.

Methods

We performed root cause analysis to study prevailing processes and patterns of CK testing. We developed new institutional guidelines, removed CK from high-volume paper and electronic order bundles and conducted academic detailing for departments with highest ordering frequency. We evaluated consecutive patients at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre between 1 January 2018 and 31 March 2020 who had either a CK or troponin level measured. We prespecified successful implementation as a reduction of 50% in total CK orders and a decrease in the ratio of CK-to-troponin tests to one-third or less. We retained additional data beyond our study period to assess for sustained reductions in testing.

Results

Total CK tests decreased over the study period from 3963 to 2111 per month, amounting to a 46.7% reduction (95% CI 33.2 to 60.2; p<0.001) equalling 61 fewer tests per hospital day. Troponin testing did not significantly change during the intervention. Ratio of CK-to-troponin tests decreased from 0.91 to 0.49 (p<0.001). The reduction coincided with changes to order-sets, was observed across all clinical units and was sustained during additional months beyond the study period. These reductions in testing resulted in a projected annual cost savings of C$28 446.

Conclusions

We demonstrate that a low-cost and feasible quality improvement initiative may lead to significant reduction in unnecessary CK testing and substantial savings in healthcare costs for patients with suspected cardiac injury.

A systematic literature review on unnecessary diagnostic testing: The role of ICT use

BACKGROUND

The negative impact of unnecessary diagnostic tests on healthcare systems and patients has been widely recognized. Medical researchers in various countries have been devoting effort to reduce unnecessary diagnostic tests by using different types of interventions, including information and communications technology-based (ICT-based) intervention, educational intervention, audit and feedback, the introduction of guidelines or protocols, and the reward and punishment of staff. We conducted a review of ICT based interventions and a comparative analysis of their relative effectiveness in reducing unnecessary tests.

METHOD

A systematic Boolean search in PubMed, EMBase and EBSCOhost research databases was performed. Keyword search and citation analysis were also conducted. Empirical studies reporting ICT based interventions, and their implications on relative effectiveness in reducing unnecessary diagnostic tests (pathology tests or medical imaging) were evaluated independently by two reviewers based on a rigorously developed coding protocol.

RESULTS

92 research articles from peer-reviewed journals were identified as eligible. 47 studies involved a single-method intervention and 45 involved multi-method interventions. Regardless of the number of interventions involved in the studies, ICT-based interventions were utilized by 71 studies and 59 of them were shown to be effective in reducing unnecessary testing. A clinical decision support (CDS) tool appeared to be the most adopted ICT approach, with 46 out of 71 studies using CDS tools. The CDS tool showed effectiveness in reducing test volume in 38 studies and reducing cost in 24 studies.

CONCLUSIONS

This review investigated five frequently utilized intervention methods, ICT-based, education, introduction of guidelines or protocols, audit and feedback, and reward and punishment. It provides in-depth analysis of the efficacy of different types of interventions and sheds insights about the benefits of ICT based interventions, especially those utilising CDS tools, to reduce unnecessary diagnostic testing. The replicability of the studies is limited due to the heterogeneity of the studies in terms of context, study design, and targeted types of tests.

Clinical utility and economic burden of routine serum lipase determination in the Emergency Department

BACKGROUND

Serum lipase is a rapid and reliable laboratory test central to diagnosing acute pancreatitis (AP). Routine use in the emergency department (ED) setting for all cases of abdominal pain or as part of a standard laboratory biochemical profile may lead to unnecessary expenses.

AIM

To examine the utility of serum lipase determination at a tertiary care centre ED.

METHODS

Retrospective cross-sectional study of ED patients having serum lipase determination over a 12-month period. Electronic medical records were reviewed for indication and interpretation leading to additional diagnostic imaging, specialist consultation, interventions or hospital admission.

RESULTS

A total of 24 133 adult patients visited the ED during the study period: 4976 (20.6%) had serum lipase determination, 614 (12.4%) had abnormal lipase, 130 of which (21.1%) were above the diagnostic threshold for acutre pancreatitis (AP) (>3× ULN). A total of 75 patients had confirmed AP (0.3% of all adult ED visits). The positive and negative predictive values of serum lipase (>3× ULN) for AP were 43.6% and 99.6%, respectively. One thousand eight hundred and ninety patients (38.0%) had no abdominal pain on history or physical examination. In this group, the total charge associated with lipase determination was $51 030 with 251 (13.3%) elevated lipase values triggering cross-sectional abdominal imaging in 61 (24.3%) patients and unwarranted gastroenterology consultation in three (1.2%) for an additional charge of $28 975.

CONCLUSIONS

Serum lipase is widely overutilised in the emergency setting resulting in unnecessary expenses and investigations. Evidence-based review of clinical guidelines and more restrictive testing can result in substantial cost savings and improved patient care.

Routine creatine kinase testing does not provide clinical utility in the emergency department for diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes

BACKGROUND

Despite the high sensitivity and negative predictive value of contemporary high-sensitivity troponin T assays (hsTnT), creatine kinase (CK) continues to be routinely tested for the diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). We conducted a study to identify the clinical utility of routine CK measurement, its relevance in clinical decision making in the era of hsTnT, and the potential cost-savings achievable by limiting its use.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective review of all adult patients presenting to a tertiary care center in the year 2017. We identified patients presenting with cardiac complaints who had non-diagnostic hsTnT and positive CK. These patients underwent chart review to determine whether a diagnosis of AMI was made.

RESULTS

A total of 36,251 presentations were reviewed. 9951 had cardiac complaints and 8150 had CK measured. 82% of these patients had hsTnT and CK measured; 2012 of these patients had non-diagnostic hsTnT with positive CK. Of these 2012 patients, only 1 was subsequently diagnosed with AMI (0.012%). CK provided no diagnostic benefit over hsTnT alone in > 99.9% of cases. With a cost for CK of $4/test, we estimated that routine CK testing costs at least $32,000 per year in our center, and over $100,000 per year across the region.

CONCLUSION

Routine CK testing does not provide a significant benefit to patient care and therefore represents an unnecessary system cost. Routine CK testing for the diagnosis of AMI should be eliminated from emergency departments in the era of hsTnT assays.

Change in lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 and its association with cardiovascular outcomes in patients with acute coronary syndrome

Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) probably plays an important role in the development of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). However, alterations of Lp-PLA2 levels during ACS and its association with cardiovascular outcome are unclear. Our aim was to investigate the change in Lp-PLA2 and its association with cardiovascular outcome in patients with ACS.A total of 79 patients with ACS came from the coronary care unit (CCU) between June 1, 2015 and August 31, 2016 in this longitudinal study. Serum levels of Lp-PLA2, troponin I, and creatine kinase isoenzymes MB (CK-MB) were measured at admission, on the first morning (D1), on the second morning of hospitalization (D2), and on the last second morning before discharge (D4). The patients were followed up till November 30, 2016. The primary outcomes were cardiovascular death and cardiovascular rehospitalization. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazard models were used to identify risk factors for poor outcome in patients with ACS.All patients were followed up for 10.6 ± 4.7 months. The patients were divided into 2 groups according to the median of Lp-PLA2: lower Lp-PLA2 group and higher Lp-PLA2 group. Elevated levels of Lp-PLA2 significantly decreased during the early phases of ACS in higher Lp-PLA2 group. And Lp-PLA2 level increased at first and then decreased in lower Lp-PLA2 group. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with elevated Lp-PLA2 had a lower cardiovascular event-free survival (log-rank χ = 4.736, P = .030) than those with lower Lp-PLA2. Cox regression analysis indicated that high Lp-PLA2 level (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.005, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.002-1.008, P = .003), time delay from symptom onset to admission (HR = 1.088, 95% CI = 1.038-1.139, P < .001) independently predicted cardiovascular event in patients with ACS after adjusting for potential confounders.Serum level of Lp-PLA2 altered considerably during the early phase of ACS and increased Lp-PLA2 independently predicted cardiovascular outcome in patients with ACS after adjustment for potential confounders.

Effectiveness of Practices to Support Appropriate Laboratory Test Utilization: A Laboratory Medicine Best Practices Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objectives

To evaluate the effectiveness of practices used to support appropriate clinical laboratory test utilization.

Methods

This review followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Laboratory Medicine Best Practices A6 cycle method. Eligible studies assessed one of the following practices for effect on outcomes relating to over- or underutilization: computerized provider order entry (CPOE), clinical decision support systems/tools (CDSS/CDST), education, feedback, test review, reflex testing, laboratory test utilization (LTU) teams, and any combination of these practices. Eligible outcomes included intermediate, systems outcomes (eg, number of tests ordered/performed and cost of tests), as well as patient-related outcomes (eg, length of hospital stay, readmission rates, morbidity, and mortality).

Results

Eighty-three studies met inclusion criteria. Fifty-one of these studies could be meta-analyzed. Strength of evidence ratings for each practice ranged from high to insufficient.

Conclusion

Practice recommendations are made for CPOE (specifically, modifications to existing CPOE), reflex testing, and combined practices. No recommendation for or against could be made for CDSS/CDST, education, feedback, test review, and LTU. Findings from this review serve to inform guidance for future studies.

Trends in Troponin-Only Testing for AMI in Academic Teaching Hospitals and the Impact of Choosing Wisely®

BACKGROUND

Identifying hospitals that are both early and consistent adopters of high-value care can help shed light on the culture and practices at those institutions that are necessary to promote high-value care nationwide. The use of troponin to diagnose acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and not to test for myoglobin or creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), is a high-value recommendation of the Choosing Wisely® campaign.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the variation in cardiac biomarker testing and the effect of the Choosing Wisely® troponin-only recommendation for the diagnosis of AMI.

DESIGN

A retrospective observational study using administrative ordering data from Vizient's Clinical Database/Resource Manager.

SETTING

Ninety-one academic medical centers from the fourth quarter of 2013 through the third quarter of 2016.

PATIENTS

Hospitalized patients with a principal discharge diagnosis of AMI.

INTERVENTION

The Choosing Wisely® recommendation to order troponin-only testing to diagnose AMI was released during the first quarter of 2015.

RESULTS

In 19 hospitals, troponin-only testing was consistently ordered to diagnose AMI before the Choosing Wisely® recommendation and throughout the study period. In 34 hospitals, both troponin and myoglobin/CK-MB were ordered to diagnose AMI even after the Choosing Wisely® recommendation. In 26 hospitals with low rates of troponin-only testing before the Choosing Wisely® recommendation, the release of the recommendation was associated with a statistically significant increase in the rate of troponin-only testing to diagnose AMI.

CONCLUSIONS

In institutions with low rates of troponin-only testing prior to the Choosing Wisely® recommendation, the recommendation was associated with a significant increase in the rate of troponin-only testing.

Trends in Use of Biomarker Protocols for the Evaluation of Possible Myocardial Infarction

Background

Various combinations of creatine kinase‐MB, myoglobin, and cardiac troponin I or T (cTnI/cTnT) have been used to evaluate patients with suspected acute coronary syndromes. The current recommendation is to use the 99th percentile of cTnI/cTnT as the sole marker for diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction.

Methods and Results

We retrospectively analyzed cardiac marker protocols collected from 824 US hospitals undergoing Chest Pain Center Accreditation through the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care from 2009 to 2014. Data were obtained by a self‐reported survey that addressed cardiac marker(s), sampling time periods, and cut points used for evaluation of suspected acute myocardial infarction. The combination of cTnI or cTnT with creatine kinase‐MB was the most commonly used biomarker strategy. Use of cTnI or cTnT as the sole marker increased over time (14–37%; P<0.0001), as did use of the 99th percentile cut point for cTnI/cTnT (30–60%; P<0.0001).

Conclusion

There is considerable variation in cardiac marker testing strategies used in US hospitals for evaluation of suspected acute myocardial infarction. Although increasing, 24% of hospitals used a cTn alone strategy, and only 49% used cTn at the recommended 99th percentile cut point. This has important implications for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with acute myocardial infarction.

Quality Improvement Intervention for Reduction of Redundant Testing

Laboratory data are critical to analyzing and improving clinical quality. In the setting of residual use of creatine kinase M and B isoenzyme testing for myocardial infarction, we assessed disease outcomes of discordant creatine kinase M and B isoenzyme +/troponin I (-) test pairs in order to address anticipated clinician concerns about potential loss of case-finding sensitivity following proposed discontinuation of routine creatine kinase and creatine kinase M and B isoenzyme testing. Time-sequenced interventions were introduced. The main outcome was the percentage of cardiac marker studies performed within guidelines. Nonguideline orders dominated at baseline. Creatine kinase M and B isoenzyme testing in 7496 order sets failed to detect additional myocardial infarctions but was associated with 42 potentially preventable admissions/quarter. Interruptive computerized soft stops improved guideline compliance from 32.3% to 58% (P < .001) in services not receiving peer leader intervention and to >80% (P < .001) with peer leadership that featured dashboard feedback about test order performance. This successful experience was recapitulated in interrupted time series within 2 additional services within facility 1 and then in 2 external hospitals (including a critical access facility). Improvements have been sustained postintervention. Laboratory cost savings at the academic facility were estimated to be ≥US$635 000 per year. National collaborative data indicated that facility 1 improved its order patterns from fourth to first quartile compared to peer norms and imply that nonguideline orders persist elsewhere. This example illustrates how pathologists can provide leadership in assisting clinicians in changing laboratory ordering practices. We found that clinicians respond to local laboratory data about their own test performance and that evidence suggesting harm is more compelling to clinicians than evidence of cost savings. Our experience indicates that interventions done at an academic facility can be readily instituted by private practitioners at external facilities. The intervention data also supplement existing literature that electronic order interruptions are more successful when combined with modalities that rely on peer education combined with dashboard feedback about laboratory order performance. The findings may have implications for the role of the pathology laboratory in the ongoing pivot from quantity-based to value-based health care.