Clinical Medicine Insights: Cardiology

D-dimers are cleavage products of fibrin that occur during plasmin-mediated fibrinolysis of blood clots. In the emergency department, D-dimer measurement represents a valuable and cost-effective tool in the differential diagnosis of acute chest pain including the main life-threatening entities: acute coronary syndrome, pulmonary embolism, and acute aortic syndrome. Whereas the diagnostic and prognostic values of D-dimer testing in acute coronary syndrome is of less priority, increases of D-dimers are frequently found in venous thromboembolism and acute aortic syndromes, especially acute aortic dissection. As to the high negative predictive value of D-dimer in those disorders, patients with low to intermediate pretest probability may profit in terms of less necessity of further non-invasive or even invasive imaging, simultaneously reducing potential complications and healthcare-related costs. However, because of the low specificity of the different D-dimer tests in contrast to its frequent usage, adequate interpretation is required. Age-related adjustment of D-dimer levels may be used to increase its diagnostic power.