How often do you draw Troponins at your hospital?

[RNcDreams]

Attention All Tele Nurses:

I'm hoping to get a policy changed at my facility.

How often does your hospital have you draw troponin levels? Currently, we are required to check them every 3 hours. I understand that they can be done every 3, 6, and even 8 hours. What is your policy, and what state are you in?

Thanks!

[markandrew61]

Approx 10hrs apart, used to be 6-8 hrs. Changed due to funding.

[al7139, ASN, RN]

Hi,

I am a tele nurse. When we get chest pain patients it's usually 3 sets of enzymes drawn every 6 or 8 hours apart. If 2 are negative, they get stressed the next day. Sometimes, they are what I call low positives (0.03 to 0.06), which are usually treated as negative. It's not till a patient has a troponin of 0.1 or greater that we think MI, and then you may draw more frequently to determine the peak point and when it starts to go down. This tells how bad the damage is. Hope this helps.

Amy

[anonymurse]

Q3H x3 then 24H after the first draw.

[lindyjoe]

We do CE q6hrs x3

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

we draw enzymes q6 x 3 sets for any chest pain r/o MI, unless they are trending upwards, then it's q 3 hours.

[RNcDreams]

RNcDreams - do 3/24 bloods show anything more significant? It just seems so much extra work and expense...

Well, that's the issue!

Nobody knows WHY we do them so frequently... and it's kind of counterproductive to wake up the post- MI patient who needs rest, in order to stick them with another needle.... plus, you make a valid point about the EXPENSE!

So, I'm working on changing that!

[nursejcarrie]

It depends on the doctor on how often they are drawn at our hospital (Washington County Hospital in Hagerstown MD)......

one cardiology group orders their cardiac enzymes q6h x 3

another cardiology group orders their cardiac enzymes q8h x 3

and the hospitalist group orders their cardiac enzymes q8h x 2

Generally, there are either drawn every 6 hours or every 8 hours.....I have never seen them drawn every 3 hours

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

We do an initial draw, then 3, 6, 12, and 24 hours post initial draw.