title: Towards evidence-based emergency medicine: best BETs from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. BET 2: Clinical identification of acute thoracic aortic dissection.
abstract: A short cut review was carried out to establish whether the risk of thoracic aortic aneurysm can be assessed clinically at the bedside. 393 papers were found using the reported searches, of which two presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of those best papers are tabulated. It is concluded that there are no prospectively tested rules to risk stratify chest pain for the risk of dissecting aortic aneurysm. The aortic dissection detection score might be useful but requires prospective validation in an emergency department cohort of patients with chest pain.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Queen
authors.forename: Bryan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Judge
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D017545:Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D055416:Evidence-Based Emergency Medicine; D006801:Humans; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D014463:Ultrasonography