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With the increased sensitivity of the newest cardiac troponin assays, the risk of false positive cardiac troponin measurements has also increased. As summarised in this review, there are multiple possible causes of cardiac troponin release including several non-cardiac illnesses, particularly kidney disease. Further, there is a risk of analytical interference in which case repeated measurements with a different assay is a good tool. When there is a discrepancy between troponin measurement and clinical presentation of the patient, the clinician should consider the possibility of analytical interference.

Infective endocarditis (IE) is one of the most severe infectious diseases with an in-hospital mortality of 20-25%. Several studies have shown, that the incidence of IE is increasing, and that patients now are older with a higher burden of comorbidities than previously. The diagnostic work-up is mainly based upon the presence of bacteraemia and echocardiography. The treatment is antibiotics and, in some cases, also cardiac surgery. In most cases, after clinical stabilization, it is safe to switch antibiotic treatment from intravenous to oral administration, as argued in this review.

Infection with Mycobacterium chimaera has globally been linked to cardiac surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass devices with contaminated heater-cooler units (HCU). This is a case report of M. chimaera infection linked to HCU in Denmark in which we show, how difficult the diagnosis can be. A 67-year-old man had an aortic graft and valvular replacement using HCU. Post-operatively he developed progressing symptoms of intermittent fever, malaise and endocarditis with septic embolic events, and despite extensive diagnostic work-up, he remained undiagnosed for 16 months following surgery.

Early Warning Score (EWS) are used extensively to identify patients at risk of deterioration during hospital admission. The validation of EWS has primarily focused on investigating predictive validity, i.e. the association between EWS and severe adverse events. Few studies have tested, whether EWS work in the clinical setting, and if it prevents severe adverse events from occurring. Many of these studies have methodological limitations, and their clinical relevance could be questioned. Currently, there is limited evidence to support, that the implementation of EWS reduces the occurrence of severe adverse events.

Formalized triage has been implemented in all Danish emergency departments. The validation behind formalized triage has focused on investigating predictive validity, i.e. correspondence between triage category and different outcome measures. Reliability is primarily investigated in terms of inter-rater reliability on written patient cases, and several studies have methodological limitations questioning their clinical relevance. Currently, there is no evidence establishing that formalized triage is superior to informally structured triage with regards to clinical end points.

Intravenous drug abuse is a major health concern. The National Board of Health estimates the number of injecting drug users (IDUs) in Denmark to be 13,000. Supervised injecting facilities (SIF) reduce the risk behaviour and bacterial infections and also increase the rate of detoxification and access to health care. The first SIF in Denmark is driven by volunteers and it opened in September 2011. In the first six months there were 1,139 visits. As in earlier studies the IDUs were mainly males with a long history of drug use. Unlike in previously published studies cocaine was the most commonly injected drug.

Congenital heart disease with left-to-right shunt can induce proliferation, vasoconstriction and thrombosis in the pulmonary vascular bed. Eventually, the patient may develop Eisenmenger syndrome defined as pulmonary arterial hypertension caused by high pulmonary vascular resistance with right-to-left shunt and cyanosis. Patients with Eisenmenger syndrome suffer a high risk of complications in connection with acute medical conditions, extra-cardiac surgery and pregnancy. This article describes the precautions that should be taken to reduce morbidity and mortality in these patients.

Introduction: Since the introduction and increased availability of echocardiography, the importance of heart auscultation in diagnosing valvular heart disease has been reduced. Nevertheless, auscultation is still important when deciding whether to refer a patient for further examination., Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis was done of 2,907 consecutive patients admitted to a hospital in Copenhagen from 1 April 1998 to 31 March 1999. Auscultation, clinical history and echocardiography were performed within 24 hours of admittance., Results: The prevalence of heart murmurs was 20.5%. The sensitivity and specificity of murmur found by auscultation and echocardiographic findings were 0.52 and 0.93, respectively. We found a positive predictive value of auscultation of 0.76 and a negative predictive value of 0.82., Conclusion: The relationship between auscultation and echocardiography in diagnosing heart murmurs in non-selected patients admitted to hospital has not previously been described. Auscultation has a high specificity, indicating that such patients should be referred for echocardiography. Its sensitivity, however, is low, indicating that it is insufficient as a means of screening for valvular heart disease.