Cardiac troponins (cTn) are currently the standard of care for the diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with chest pain (CP). However, their plasma kinetics necessitate a prolonged ED stay or overnight hospital admission, especially in those presenting early after CP onset. Moreover, ruling out ACS in low-risk patients requires prolonged ED observation or overnight hospital admission to allow serial measurements of c-Tn, adding cost. Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP) is a novel marker of myocardial injury with putative advantages over cTn. Being present in abundance in the myocellular cytoplasm, it is released rapidly (<1 h) after the onset of myocardial injury and could potentially play an important role in both earlier diagnosis of high-risk patients presenting early after CP onset, as well as in risk-stratifying low-risk patients rapidly. Like cTn, H-FABP also has a potential role as a prognostic marker in other conditions where the myocardial injury occurs, such as acute congestive heart failure (CHF) and acute pulmonary embolism (PE). This review provides an overview of the evidence examining the role of H-FABP in early diagnosis and risk stratification of patients with CP and in non-ACS conditions associated with myocardial injury. KEY MESSAGES Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein is a biomarker that is elevated early in myocardial injury The routine use in the emergency department complements the use of troponins in ruling out acute coronary syndromes in patients presenting early with chest pain It also is useful in risk stratifying patients with other conditions such as heart failure and acute pulmonary embolism.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the ultrasound method as a tool for in-vivo breast and abdominal fat prediction on Campero-INTA broilers. Breast length (mm), width (mm), surface (mm2; ultrasound) and depth (mm; ultrasound), and abdominal fat depth (mm; ultrasound) were measured at 65-66 and 72-73 days of age on 96 males. At 79 days of age, the broilers were weighed and slaughtered. Breast and abdominal fat weights (g) were obtained. Multiple regression equations were fitted using live weight (g) and in-vivo measurements to predict breast and abdominal fat weights and proportions (g/g). The best model for each case was selected by the Stepwise procedure. Equations fitted were verified using another set of data. Breast weight prediction using live weight and breast length in the model was as accurate as using live weight and breast depth. The former is recommended for breeding work. Abdominal fat weight prediction using ultrasound measurements of fat was less accurate than breast weight prediction. Repeatabilities for ultrasound breast measurements were higher (0·72 to 0·73) than those for abdominal fat (0·51 to 0·52). Operator effect may be important when training levels are different.

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