An emergency room nurse is evaluating laboratory results of a 62-year-old patient who presented to the ED with complaints of shortness of breath for 2 days. The nurse notes that the troponin level is 1.26 ng/mL which indicates which of the following? 

Explanation

•When a patient presents to the emergency room with complaints of shortness of breath, serum cardiac enzymes will be evaluated. Cardiac enzyme laboratory panels include several different markers that may indicate muscle damage including CK-MB, CK, and troponin.

•CK-MB and troponin are cardiac muscle-specific enzymes. Troponin levels will remain elevated in the presence of cardiac muscle damage for up to 15 days after the injury.

•Troponin levels will be less than 0.01 ng/mL in patients without cardiac injury.

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