title: The HEART score with high-sensitive troponin T at presentation: ruling out patients with chest pain in the emergency room.
abstract: The HEART score is a simple scoring system, ranging from 0 to 10, specifically developed for risk stratification of patients with undifferentiated chest pain. It has been validated for the conventional troponin, but not for high-sensitive troponin. We assess a modified version of the HEART score using a single high-sensitivity troponin T dosage at presentation, regardless of symptom duration, and with different ECG criteria to evaluate if the patients with a low HEART score could be safely discharged early. The secondary aim was to confirm a statistically significant difference in each HEART score group (low 0-3, intermediate 4-6, high 7-10) in the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events at 30 and 180 days. We retrospectively analyzed the HEART score of 1597 consecutive patients admitted to the Emergency Department of our Hospital for chest pain between January 1 and June 30, 2014. Of these, 190 did not meet the inclusion criteria and 29 were lost to follow-up. None of the 512 (37.2 %) patients with a low HEART score had an event within 180 days. The difference between the cumulative incidences of events in the three HEART score groups was statistically significant (P < 0.0001). We demonstrate that it might be possible to safely discharge Emergency Department chest pain patients with a low modified HEART score after an initial determination of high-sensitive troponin T, without a prolonged observation period or an additional cardiac testing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency, Medicina d'Urgenza e Pronto Soccorso, Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi, Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. lucasanti@hotmail.it.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Santi
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency, Medicina d'Urgenza e Pronto Soccorso, Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Farina
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Surgical Sciences, Semeiotica Medica, Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi, Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Annagiulia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gramenzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Surgical Sciences, Semeiotica Medica, Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi, Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Trevisani
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Surgical Sciences, Endocrinologia, Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi, Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Margherita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baccini
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Surgical Sciences, Semeiotica Medica, Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi, Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bernardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency, Medicina d'Urgenza e Pronto Soccorso, Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cavazza
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000145:classification; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D020107:Troponin T / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D020107:Troponin T
keywords: Acute coronary syndrome; Chest pain; Clinical decision rules; Heart score; High-sensitive troponin