Method and device for diagnosing and distinguishing chest pain in early onset thereof

A diagnostic kit for determining if a patient presenting with chest pain is undergoing a cardiac event and, if so, if the cardiac event is an unstable argina or a myocardial infarction, said kit comprising three antibodies specific for each of three different markers wherein the antibodies are selected so that:

• a) a fast antibody binds to an ischemic marker;
• and
• b) second and third antibodies each bind to a marker released only as a result of myocardial infraction;
• and further comprising three different labeled markers which bind to each of the antibodies;
• wherein at least one of the markers to which the antibodies bind is cardiac specific, and wherein one of the markers to which the antibodies bind is released before about six hours after the onset of chest pain.

A method for determining if a patient presenting with chest pain is undergoing a cardiac event and, if so, if the cardiac event is an unstable angina or a myocardial infarction, comprising

• a) detecting the presence or absence of increased levels of three different markers of cardiac damage present in a blood, serum, or plasma sample from a patient after onset of chest pain, wherein:
• i) a first marker is an ischemic marker;
• and
• ii) second and third markers are released only as a result of myocardial infarction;
• and
• iii) at least one of the markers is cardiac specific, and wherein one of the markers to which the antibodies bind is released before about six hours after the onset of chest pain;
• by contacting the sample with three antibodies, one of which one is specific for each of the markers, and detecting binding of the antibody to the marker, whereby the presence of increased levels of a marker in the sample is indicated by binding of the marker with the respective antibody;
• and
• b) correlating the presence or absence of increased levels of each of the three markers with the presence or absence of unstable angina or myocardial infarction.