Flow-chart of the study design.

<p>Flow-chart of the study design.</p

Characteristics of the patients seen by supervised medical students and emergency department physicians.

<p>P values were calculated using the Wilcoxon-test for numeric data and the Fisher's exact test for non-numeric data. Diagnostic accuracy: congruence between working diagnosis from the Emergency department and final diagnosis from the discharge letter. PCCL: patient comorbidity complexity level from the national Diagnosis related Group system. Expenditures on diagnostic procedures: calculated with the official national medical fee schedule for hospitals.</p

Independent factors determining plasma troponin concentrations by multivariate linear modeling (n = 201).

<p>Independent factors determining plasma troponin concentrations by multivariate linear modeling (n = 201).</p

Plot showing the influence of single predictors in the multivariate model for troponin T (A) and troponin I (B).

<p>^# p<0.10, ^* p<0.05, ^** p<0.01, ^*** p<0.001.</p

Patient characteristics of the cohort (n = 239).

<p>Values shown are the median and interquartile range. N indicates number of patients from which data were available.</p><p>abbreviations:</p><p>PTFE  =  polytetrafluorethylene, LV  =  left ventricle, AICD  =  automated implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.</p

Hazard ratio of mortality according to tertiles of troponin T (<37; 38–67; >67 pg/ml), troponin I (<10; 10–22; >22 pg/ml), age (<63; 63–75; >75 years) and classes of systolic LV function (1 = normal, 2 = mildly reduced; 3 = moderately and severe reduced).

<p>Error bars represent lower and upper 95% confidence interval. The hazard ratio of the first tertile or class, respectively, was set to 1. ^** p<0.01, ^*** p<0.001.</p

Univariate correlations (Pearson's r) of the plasma troponin concentration with general and dialysis-specific parameters (n = 210–239).

#<p>p<0.10, ^* p<0.05, ^** p<0.01, ^*** p<0.001, n.s.  =  not significant (p>0.10).</p

Agreement between predicted and observed log troponin I and T concentrations.

<p>Plot of the predicted and observed troponin values for troponin T (<b>A</b>) and troponin I (<b>B</b>) as a result of the models shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0047610#pone-0047610-t004" target="_blank">table 4</a>. The diagonal line represents the line of identity.</p

Survival curves of the cohort stratified according to classes of systolic LV function and tertiles of age, troponin T and troponin I.

<p>Survival curves of the cohort stratified according to classes of systolic LV function and tertiles of age, troponin T and troponin I.</p

Depiction of the plasma troponin I and T concentrations in the cohort.

<p><b>A</b> Box-and-Whiskers-Plot of the plasma troponin I and T concentrations indicating the median, interquartile range and the range between the 2.5^th and 97.5^th percentile. Solid lines represent the 99^th percentile of the assay <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0047610#pone.0047610-Reichlin1" target="_blank">[19]</a>. <b>B</b> Distribution of the plasma troponin I and T concentrations in the cohort (n = 239). <b>C</b> Box-and-Whiskers-Plot of the plasma troponin I and T concentrations expressed as multiples of the 99^th percentile <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0047610#pone.0047610-Reichlin1" target="_blank">[19]</a>. ^*** indicates a significant difference (p<0.0001) between the troponin T and troponin I concentrations.</p