Browsing by Author "Diercks, Deborah B"

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    Emergency physician high pretest probability for acute coronary syndrome correlates with adverse cardiovascular outcomes.
    (Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, 2009-08) Chandra, Abhinav; Lindsell, Christopher J; Limkakeng, Alexander; Diercks, Deborah B; Hoekstra, James W; Hollander, Judd E; Kirk, J Douglas; Peacock, W Frank; Gibler, W Brian; Pollack, Charles V; EMCREG i*trACS Investigators
    OBJECTIVES: The value of unstructured physician estimate of risk for disease processes, other than acute coronary syndrome (ACS), has been demonstrated. The authors sought to evaluate the predictive value of unstructured physician estimate of risk for ACS in emergency department (ED) patients without obvious initial evidence of a cardiac event. METHODS: This was a post hoc secondary analysis of the Internet Tracking Registry for Acute Coronary Syndromes (i*trACS), a prospectively collected multicenter data registry of patients over the age of 18 years presenting to the ED with symptoms of ACS between 1999 and 2001. In this registry, following patient history, physical exam, and electrocardiogram (ECG), the unstructured treating physician estimate of risk was recorded. A 30-day follow-up and a medical record review were used to determine rates of adverse cardiac events, death, myocardial infarction (MI), or revascularization procedure. The analysis included all patients with nondiagnostic ECG changes, normal initial biomarkers, and a non-MI initial impression from the registry and excluded those without complete data or who were lost to follow-up. Data were stratified by unstructured physician risk estimate: noncardiac, low risk, high risk, or unstable angina. RESULTS: Of 15,608 unique patients in the registry, 10,145 met inclusion/exclusion criteria. Patients were defined as having unstable angina in 6.0% of cases; high risk, 23.5% of cases; low risk, 44.2%; and noncardiac, 26.3% of cases. Adverse cardiac event rates had an inverse relationship, decreasing from 22.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 18.8% to 25.6%) for unstable angina, 10.2% (95% CI = 9.0% to 11.5%) for those stratified as high risk, 2.2% (95% CI = 1.8% to 2.6%) for low risk, and to 1.8% (95% CI = 1.4% to 2.4%) for noncardiac. The relative risk (RR) of an adverse cardiac event for those with an initial label of unstable angina compared to those with a low-risk designation was 10.2 (95% CI = 8.0 to 13.0). The RR of an event for those with a high-risk initial impression compared to those with a low-risk initial impression was 4.7 (95% CI = 3.8 to 5.9). The risk of an event among those with a low-risk initial impression was the same as for those with a noncardiac initial impression (RR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.6 to 1.2). CONCLUSIONS: In ED patients without obvious initial evidence of a cardiac event, unstructured emergency physician (EP) estimate of risk correlates with adverse cardiac outcomes.
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    Inter-rater Reliability of the HEART Score.
    (Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, 2019-05) Gershon, Colin A; Yagapen, Annick N; Lin, Amber; Yanez, David; Sun, Benjamin C
    BACKGROUND: The HEART score is a risk stratification tool for suspected acute coronary syndrome and contains several subjective components. A single previous study found good inter-rater reliability. Our objective was to assess the inter-rater reliability of the HEART score in an external prospective cohort. METHODS: We prospectively collected paired, independent physician ratings of the HEART score for patients > 20 years of age presenting to the emergency department with chest pain for which an ECG and troponin were ordered. Two emergency physicians independently provided HEART scores for each unique patient. The primary outcome, the HEART score, was dichotomized by low risk (0–3) vs non- low risk (4–10). Additional outcomes included the HEART score across the entire scale (0–10) and subcomponents of the HEART score (e.g., history, electrocardiogram, risk factors; score of 0–2 for each). We calculated kappa statistics and percent agreement for all outcomes. RESULTS: We collected paired physician HEART score ratings on 311 patients from October 2017 to April 2018. The mean HEART score was 3.5 (SD 1.9). About half (49.2%) of our patients had a HEART score of ≤ 3, and 50.8% had a HEART score > 3. The kappa score for “low risk” (HEART ≤ 3) was 0.68 (95%CI: 0.60 – 0.77). There was 84.2% agreement between physicians on this variable. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates there is substantial inter-rater reliability among emergency department physicians in identifying patients at low risk of acute coronary syndrome using the HEART score.
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    Using Sex-specific Cutoffs for High-sensitivity Cardiac Troponin T to Diagnose Acute Myocardial Infarction.
    (Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, 2020-07-29) Peacock, W Frank; Baumann, Brigitte M; Rivers, E Joy; Davis, Thomas E; Handy, Beverly; Jones, Christopher W; Hollander, Judd E; Limkakeng, Alexander T; Mehrotra, Abhi; Than, Martin; Cullen, Louise; Ziegler, André; Dinkel-Keuthage, Carina
    High-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) assays facilitate early decision-making in acute myocardial infarction (AMI).1 The accuracy of these assays now allow sex-specific differences in levels to be detected within healthy populations. It is thought that differences in plasma levels of cardiac troponin (cTn) are due to sex-specific variations in body composition and cardiac physiology,2 and that estrogen may also play a part.3 However, the clinical relevance of this remains unclear.4 Women presenting with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) are less frequently diagnosed, have poorer outcomes,5 and are more likely to have atypical symptoms than men.6 The requirement for sex-specific cutoffs may vary depending on the troponin assay, intended use, AMI type, and clinical performance estimate being assessed. Previously proposed sex-specific hs-cTnT assay cutoffs (females, 14 ng/L; males, 22 ng/L) did not alter sensitivity for AMI versus the overall cutoff (19 ng/L), but resulted in slightly lower specificity for AMI in females and higher specificity in males.4 However, it is uncertain whether sex-specific cutoffs improve hs-cTnT assay diagnostic performance.