Type 2 Myocardial Infarction: Evolving Approaches to Diagnosis and Risk-Stratification.

BACKGROUND

Type 2 myocardial infarction (T2MI) is frequently encountered in clinical practice and associated with adverse outcomes.

CONTENT

T2MI occurs most frequently due to noncoronary etiologies that alter myocardial oxygen supply and/or demand. The diagnosis of T2MI is often confused with acute nonischemic myocardial injury, in part because of difficulties in delineating the nature of symptoms and misunderstandings about disease categorization. The use of objective features of myocardial ischemia using electrocardiographic (ECG) or imaging abnormalities may facilitate more precise T2MI diagnosis. High-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) assays allow rapid MI diagnosis and risk stratification, yet neither maximum nor delta values facilitate differentiation of T2MI from T1MI. Several investigational biomarkers have been evaluated for T2MI, but none have robust data. There is interest in evaluating risk profiles among patients with T2MI. Clinically, the magnitude of maximum and delta cTn values as well as the presence and magnitude of ischemia on ECG or imaging is used to indicate disease severity. Scoring systems such as GRACE, TIMI, and TARRACO have been evaluated, but all have limited to modest performance, with substantial variation in time intervals used for risk-assessment and endpoints used.

SUMMARY

The diagnosis of T2MI requires biomarker evidence of acute myocardial injury and clear clinical evidence of acute myocardial ischemia without atherothrombosis. T2MIs are most often caused by noncoronary etiologies that alter myocardial oxygen supply and/or demand. They are increasingly encountered in clinical practice and associated with poor short- and long-term outcomes. Clinicians require novel biomarker or imaging approaches to facilitate diagnosis and risk-stratification.