Acute chest pain-a stepwise approach, the challenge of the correct clinical diagnosis.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety and the accuracy of a 4 h stepwise diagnostic approach relying on clinical judgement in unselected patients with acute chest pain. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Emergency department (ED) of a tertiary care university hospital. PATIENTS: 1288 unselected patients presenting with acute chest pain. INTERVENTIONS: After history and physical examination, clinical judgement (step I), governed the need for further patient evaluation: baseline 12 lead electrocardiogramm (ECG) and laboratory examinations (step II), serial 12 lead ECG and laboratory examinations after 4 h (step III), and 4 h troponin T measurement (step IV) to exclude or to confirm a coronary origin of chest pain. Patients were followed clinically for 6 months for future occurrence of cardiac events (myocardial infarction, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), CABG, cardiac death), any death and for accuracy of the ED diagnosis in non-coronary chest pain patients. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Chest pain was diagnosed to be coronary in origin in 381 and non-coronary in 907 patients, respectively. Cardiac events occurred during follow up in 240 (19%) of 1288 patients, in 233 of 381 (61%) with presumed coronary and seven of 907 (1%) with presumed non-coronary chest pain. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for correct detection of coronary chest pain were 97, 86, 61 and 99%, respectively. In non-coronary chest pain patients the agreement between the ED diagnosis and the final diagnosis was good (kappa=0.71, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.67-0.75). CONCLUSIONS: The 4 h stepwise approach guided by clinical judgement was safe for ruling out impending cardiac events in unselected patients with acute chest pain. However, more extensive evaluation is necessary for accurate rule-in of coronary chest pain.

Clinical signs of pulmonary congestion predict outcome in patients with acute chest pain.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary congestion is associated with poor outcome in patients with acute coronary syndromes. In consecutive patients presenting with acute unexplained chest pain to a primary care facility, the prognostic impact of pulmonary congestion is indeterminate. Therefore, we assessed the predictive value of clinical signs of pulmonary congestion in patients presenting with acute chest pain to an emergency department with regard to the origin of the symptoms. METHODS: 1288 consecutive patients with acute chest pain were prospectively assessed for clinical signs of pulmonary congestion. The diagnosis was confirmed by chest radiography. The association of pulmonary congestion and short- and intermediate-term mortality in patients with coronary (n = 381) and non-coronary (n = 907) causes of chest pain was determined using multivariate Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: 108 (8%) patients had clinical signs of pulmonary congestion. Within the mean follow-up period of 23 months (SD 4) 67 patients died, mainly within the first 6 months. Of 108 patients with pulmonary congestion, 82 (76%) had coronary and 26 (24%) had non-coronary chest pain. Pulmonary congestion was independently associated with mortality in patients with coronary chest pain (hazard ratio 6.4, 95% confidence interval 2.5 to 16.1, p < 0.0001), both in patients with acute coronary syndromes or angina pectoris. However, in patients with non-coronary chest pain we observed no independent association of pulmonary congestion with outcome. CONCLUSION: Clinical signs of pulmonary congestion indicate an increased risk for poor outcome in patients with chest pain due to myocardial ischemia. Mortality of these patients is high, particularly in the first months after presentation. Therefore, hospital admission is warranted, including patients with angina pectoris, who otherwise may be candidates for early discharge.