A simple scoring tool for the evaluation of patients in an emergency Department Chest Pain Unit

W. Lane Duvall, Elliot Levine, Usman Baber, Lorib Croft, Sheila Sahni, Sanjum Sethi, Luke Hermann, Mohammadtokir Mujtaba, Milena J. Henzlova

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: There are multiple risk scores to determine the prognosis of high-risk patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) to emergency departments (ED) and chest pain units (CPU), however, there are few options for patients without ACS (no diagnostic ST-segment deviation or positive biomarkers).

Objectives: To derive a clinical risk score for the management oflower-risk patients seen in ED CPUs.

Methods: We evaluated all patients triaged through the Mount Sinai ED CPU over a 76-month period who underwent stress testing after negative serial biomarkers and ECGs. Primary and secondary endpoints of hospital admission and coronary revascularization were retrospectively obtained. Variables associated with admission at P< 0.1 level were entered into a multivariable model. Each variable was assigned an integer score based on the beta coefficients in the final model.

Results: A total of 4,666 patients were evaluated and 738 (15.8%) had an abnormal stress test, 575 (12.3%) were admitted to the hospital, and 133 (2.9%) underwent coronary revascularization. A score consisting of age >55 years, gender, chestpain quality (typical vs atypical), known coronary artery disease, shortness of breath, diabetes, smoking, and abnormal ECG demonstrated strong correlation between observed vs predicted hospital admission. The clinical score showed good ability to predict admission with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) area of 0.72, which improved to 0.81 when the results of stress testing were added.

Conclusions: This new clinical risk score is simple to use, predicts a clinically relevant outcome to ED physicians, and the results of noninvasive testing are additive.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)465-474
Number of pages10
JournalConnecticut Medicine
Volume78
Issue number8
StatePublished - 1 Sep 2014
Externally publishedYes

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