Do all HEART scores beat the same?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Do all HEART scores beat the same? The reproducibility of a chest pain evaluation tool amongst doctors and nurses in the emergency department.
IRAS ID
165439
Contact name
William Niven
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Homerton University Hospital
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
REC Reference, 15/LO/0669
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 1 months, 16 days
Research summary
A potentially serious cause of chest pain is myocardial infarction (heart attack) that results from narrowing or blockage of the vessels which supply oxygen and nutrients to the heart. When nurses and doctors encounter patients presenting to the department with chest pain, being able to identify those at highest risk of developing a heart attack is important because early treatment prevents complications.
The HEART score was developed in the Netherlands in 2009 to assist clinicians in grading the risk of developing myocardial infarction as low, intermediate or high. This system has advantages over other scores in that it is easy to use, quick to calculate, and is designed to be used within the first hour of arriving in the emergency department. Where research has been lacking to date, is whether this scoring system should only be performed by senior doctors or whether it is sufficiently simple and easy to calculate that it can be reliably predicted by junior doctors and assessment nurses alike.
In order to further clarify this, we intend to set up a study in which we will recruit patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain into a study. In this study enrolled patients will be separately assessed by three grades of emergency doctor and an assessment nurse who will calculate and record the scores. With this data the researchers will then use statistical methods to establish whether or not the calculated scores are similar.
It is hoped that a successful project will lead to the increased use of the HEART score early on in the assessment of chest pain patients. As the first point of contact that patients have is often with nurses and junior doctors, the use of this tool would help to provide an assessment framework that would standardise care and benefit patients.
REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/0669
Date of REC Opinion
20 May 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion