New Test Helps Tell A Heart Attack From Chest Pains
By Dr. Brian McDonough
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There is exciting news from a conference in Washington, where a study published in the journal of the American college of cardiology was presented.
What they looked at was a simple test, that appears to very good at ruling heart attacks for people that go to the ER for chest pains.
It's a large Swedish study and they found as a blood test pulls the usual EKG was 99% accurate at showing which patients could be safely sent home rather than be admitted for observation and testing.
If this proves over time it is very important because in many cases we as physicians see people with chest pain and we do our best to evaluate them and we have to use extensive testing, including hospitalization for several days to try and figure out if this person is having a heart attack.
This test is experimental but obviously would be an exciting development.
