| Literature DB >> 18254973 |
Erik P Hess1, George A Wells, Allan Jaffe, Ian G Stiell.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Chest pain is the second most common chief complaint in North American emergency departments. Data from the U.S. suggest that 2.1% of patients with acute myocardial infarction and 2.3% of patients with unstable angina are misdiagnosed, with slightly higher rates reported in a recent Canadian study (4.6% and 6.4%, respectively). Information obtained from the history, 12-lead ECG, and a single set of cardiac enzymes is unable to identify patients who are safe for early discharge with sufficient sensitivity. The 2007 ACC/AHA guidelines for UA/NSTEMI do not identify patients at low risk for adverse cardiac events who can be safely discharged without provocative testing. As a result large numbers of low risk patients are triaged to chest pain observation units and undergo provocative testing, at significant cost to the healthcare system. Clinical decision rules use clinical findings (history, physical exam, test results) to suggest a diagnostic or therapeutic course of action. Currently no methodologically robust clinical decision rule identifies patients safe for early discharge. METHODS/Entities:
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Year: 2008 PMID: 18254973 PMCID: PMC2275746 DOI: 10.1186/1471-227X-8-3
Source DB: PubMed Journal: BMC Emerg Med ISSN: 1471-227X
List of prospectively collected historical variables.
| • Age (years) | • Gender (male/female) | |
| • Aspirin | • Nitroglycerin (or other nitrates) | |
| • Hypertension | • Family history of cardiac disease | |
| • Acute myocardial infarction | • Known coronary artery disease | |
| • Duration and time of onset of longest episode (days, hours, minutes; a.m., p.m.) | • Has the pain completely resolved? |
List of variables to be prospectively collected from the physical examination and diagnostic tests.
| • Temperature (degrees Celsius) | • Lung auscultation findings (crackles/rales at bases, crackles/rales to scapulae, wheezes) | |
| • Intepretation of first readable ECG (normal, nonspecific ST-T wave changes, abnormal but not diagnostic of ischemia, infarction or ischemia known to be old, infarction or ischemia not known to be old, consistent with AMI (ST-elevation or new left bundle branch block) | • Time and values of first and second cardiac troponin T | |
| • Probability of unstable angina or acute myocardial infarction (to the closest percent) |