AMI was diagnosed when there was evidence of myocardial necrosis in a clinical setting consistent with myocardial ischemia. Necrosis was diagnosed by a rising and/or falling pattern of troponin-I with at least one value above the cutoff value (defined as the 99th percentile of a normal population where the assay shows an imprecision <10%). Our troponin-I assay fulfills the imprecision criteria for concentration >0.2 ng/mL.