Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of heart-type fatty-acid binding protein (H-FABP) for early diagnosis of AMI. Methods:One hundred and four consecutive patients admitted to the hospital within 6 h after the onset of chest pain were recruited in the study. A rapid test kit for qualitative determination of H-FABP was applied to detect the whole serum H-FABP level in all patients at the time of admission. Serum troponinT (cTnT), creatine kinase-myocardial band(CK-MB), and myoglobin(MYO) were also measured simultaneously. Results:Among 104 recruited patients, 51 had a final diagnosis of AMI,and 53 were excluded from AMI, among whom 17 were diagnosed as UAP, 16 as SAP, and 20 as non-cardiogenic chest pain. By comparing the results of the biochemical tests with the standard diagnosis,the sensitivity of H-FABP,MYO,CK-MB and cTnT in diagnosis of AMI were 86.27%, 68.63%, 47.06% and 47.06% respectively. The sensitivity of H-FABP was significantly higher than that of MYO, CK-MB and cTnT (P < 0.05 for all). In terms of specificity, the numbers are 84.90%, 84.90%, 96.23% and 98.11% respectively. The specificity of H-FABP was lower than that of cTnT(P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between H-FABP and MYO or CK-MB; Within 3 hours after the onset of symptome appearance, the respective sensitivity of H-FABP,MYO,CK-MB and cTnT in diagnosis of AMI was 79.17% ,58.33%, 37.50% and 33.33%;Within 3~6 hours, the respective sensitivity was 92.59%,77.78%,55.56% and 59.26%. In both of the two time stage , the sensitiviy of H-FABP were significantly higher than that of CK-MB and cTnT(both P < 0.05); Within 6 hours after the onset of chest pain, the sensitivity of H-FABP + cTnT was significantly higher than that of MYO+CK-MB + cTnT (92.16% vs 76.47%, P < 0.05), but the differences between the specificity of the two were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The rapid qualitative H-FABP test kit has high efficacy in the diagnosis of AMI as early as within 6 hours of symptom onset. Combining H-FABP and cTnT provides higher sensitivity than the MYO,CK-MB and cTnT combination in the diagnosis of early AMI.