The predictive value of heart-type fatty acid-binding protein is independent from symptom duration in normotensive patients with pulmonary embolism.

Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP) is a useful biomarker for risk stratification of patients with pulmonary embolism (PE). In patients with acute myocardial infarction, H-FABP plasma concentrations rise after 30 minutes and return to normal within 20-24 hours. We tested whether the predictive value of H-FABP is affected by the duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis in patients with PE.We prospectively studied 257 consecutive normotensive patients with confirmed symptomatic PE.Patients with acute (24 hours; n=150) symptom onset presented more often with syncope (28.7% vs. 6.5%; p0.001) compared to patients with symptoms ≥ 24 hours (n=107); other baseline characteristics, comorbi…