Improving the Referral of Patients With Chest Pain

NCT ID: NCT03115190

Last Updated: 2021-01-07

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

TERMINATED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

40 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2017-04-18

Study Completion Date

2018-11-01

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

Rationale: This study aims to aid the general practitioner (GP) in the diagnostic dilemma of chest pain patients. Patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) should be referred to the hospital promptly, though referring all patients with chest pain is not feasible, as up to 80% of the patients with chest pain in the primary care do not have ACS.

Objective: The primary objective is to refer patients who contact the out-of-hours GP cooperation (GPC) with suspicion of ACS more accurately with a hypothesized reduction of 10% in unnecessary referrals.

Study design: This study is a prospective, observational, prevalence-based cohort study within the standard care of ACS patients.

Study population: All patients with chest pain, or other complaints suspect of ACS, will be included in which the GP at the GPC is in need of further diagnostics to come to a decision of referral. The follow-up will be a registry of all patients with suspected ACS referred to the emergency department (ED). Patients with typical complaints of ACS, and thus a high suspicion, will be excluded and referred promptly.

Intervention: Triage nurses working at the GPC will receive specific ACS training. Patients who arrive at the GPC with non-typical chest pain, will be screened for enrolment within the study. The GP evaluates patients using the Heart score, this includes electrocardiogram recording and point of care (POC) troponin testing. With the Heart score the GP can make an informed decision to refer the patient to the ED.

To evaluate the intervention a registry of all patients referred to the ED with suspected ACS will be compared to a baseline registry performed from the 1st of September 2015 until the 1st of March 2016. Patients not referred to the ED, will have a (standard) high-sensitivity troponin and a POC troponin as follow-up at least four hours (up to 24 hours) after first measurement.

The burden and risks associated with participation, benefit and group relatedness: Patients enrolled within this study will receive a finger stick blood test and electrocardiogram recording at the GPC and a finger stick blood test and a venous blood test at least four hours after first troponin measurement. We may follow-up by telephone if we can not obtain the required information from medical records. We expect no adverse events and there are no expected risks associated with this protocol. We expect patients with ACS to be referred more accurately and more promptly to the ED and thus lowering risks.

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Acute Coronary Syndrome Myocardial Infarction Chest Pain

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

NON_RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary Study Purpose

DIAGNOSTIC

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

General practitioner diagnosis with Heart score

Patients with chest pain who are reviewed by the general practitioner (GP) at the GP cooperation will be evaluated with the Heart score to support the GP with the diagnosis.

Group Type OTHER

General Practitioner diagnosis with Heart score

Intervention Type DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

All patients seen by the general practitioner (GP) at the GP cooperation and agreeing to participation will be evaluated with the Heart score. This is a score including history, electrocardiogram, age, risk factors and troponin to assess whether a patient is at high risk for acute coronary syndrome. The troponins asked for in the Heart score are at arrival of the patient, not regarding the time of onset of chest pain. We shall use point of care (POC) troponin, thereby modifying the Heart score. The GP must realize that the POC troponin is not reliable on its own with one test. If the Heart score is low, it is acceptable and safe to not refer the patient, it is however not safe to refer the patient solely on negative troponin result.

Triage Nurse education

The general practitioner cooperation employs nurses for (telephone) triage. They are aided by a computer based triage system, the Netherlands triage system (NTS), a 6-level urgency triage system. With this study we aim to educate the nurses in the signs and symptoms of chest pain patients. The training program will aim to educate the triage nurses in acute coronary syndrome, including pathophysiology, symptoms and risk factors. The NTS will be incorporated within the training. The triage nurses will receive a training session by Cardiologists with information about acute coronary syndrome, the symptoms and the risks.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Baseline registry as comparison

All patients referred to the emergency department (ED) with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) will be evaluated. They will receive a questionnaire to evaluate the accuracy of referral and the delays of ACS patients. This will be compared to the registry at baseline. Some patients will either have not contacted the general practitioner cooperation (GPC) at all, or will have been referred to the ED directly through the GPC nurse triage.

The 30 day, 6 months and one year follow-up of all patients will be via medical records, or in case of no or not enough information, by telephone.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

General Practitioner diagnosis with Heart score

All patients seen by the general practitioner (GP) at the GP cooperation and agreeing to participation will be evaluated with the Heart score. This is a score including history, electrocardiogram, age, risk factors and troponin to assess whether a patient is at high risk for acute coronary syndrome. The troponins asked for in the Heart score are at arrival of the patient, not regarding the time of onset of chest pain. We shall use point of care (POC) troponin, thereby modifying the Heart score. The GP must realize that the POC troponin is not reliable on its own with one test. If the Heart score is low, it is acceptable and safe to not refer the patient, it is however not safe to refer the patient solely on negative troponin result.

Intervention Type DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

All patients with chest pain or other complaints suspect of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) can be included in which the general practitioner is in need of further diagnostics to come to a decision of referral.

All patients referred to the emergency department (ED) with suspected ACS will be included to evaluate the appropriateness of referral.

Exclusion Criteria

* Patients younger than 18 years
* Patients in which a typical history and/or physical examination requires immediate referral; high suspicion of ACS
* Patients in which an acute non-coronary diagnosis is suspected, e.g. pulmonary embolism, thoracic aortic dissection etc.

The baseline of patients seen at the ED will not exclude any patients referred with suspected ACS.
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

Meet the organizations funding or collaborating on the study and learn about their roles.

VieCuri Medical Centre

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

Identify the individual or organization who holds primary responsibility for the study information submitted to regulators.

Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Locations

Explore where the study is taking place and check the recruitment status at each participating site.

VieCuri Medical Center

Venlo, , Netherlands

Site Status

Countries

Review the countries where the study has at least one active or historical site.

Netherlands

References

Explore related publications, articles, or registry entries linked to this study.

Verdon F, Herzig L, Burnand B, Bischoff T, Pecoud A, Junod M, Muhlemann N, Favrat B; GMIRG. Chest pain in daily practice: occurrence, causes and management. Swiss Med Wkly. 2008 Jun 14;138(23-24):340-7. doi: 10.4414/smw.2008.12123.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 18561039 (View on PubMed)

Task Force on the management of ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC); Steg PG, James SK, Atar D, Badano LP, Blomstrom-Lundqvist C, Borger MA, Di Mario C, Dickstein K, Ducrocq G, Fernandez-Aviles F, Gershlick AH, Giannuzzi P, Halvorsen S, Huber K, Juni P, Kastrati A, Knuuti J, Lenzen MJ, Mahaffey KW, Valgimigli M, van 't Hof A, Widimsky P, Zahger D. ESC Guidelines for the management of acute myocardial infarction in patients presenting with ST-segment elevation. Eur Heart J. 2012 Oct;33(20):2569-619. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehs215. Epub 2012 Aug 24. No abstract available.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 22922416 (View on PubMed)

Bosner S, Becker A, Haasenritter J, Abu Hani M, Keller H, Sonnichsen AC, Karatolios K, Schaefer JR, Seitz G, Baum E, Donner-Banzhoff N. Chest pain in primary care: epidemiology and pre-work-up probabilities. Eur J Gen Pract. 2009;15(3):141-6. doi: 10.3109/13814780903329528.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 19883149 (View on PubMed)

Ruddox V, Mathisen M, Otterstad JE. Prevalence and prognosis of non-specific chest pain among patients hospitalized for suspected acute coronary syndrome - a systematic literature search. BMC Med. 2012 Jun 12;10:58. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-10-58.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 22691301 (View on PubMed)

Webster R, Norman P, Goodacre S, Thompson A. The prevalence and correlates of psychological outcomes in patients with acute non-cardiac chest pain: a systematic review. Emerg Med J. 2012 Apr;29(4):267-73. doi: 10.1136/emermed-2011-200526. Epub 2011 Oct 27.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 22034535 (View on PubMed)

Weinstock MB, Weingart S, Orth F, VanFossen D, Kaide C, Anderson J, Newman DH. Risk for Clinically Relevant Adverse Cardiac Events in Patients With Chest Pain at Hospital Admission. JAMA Intern Med. 2015 Jul;175(7):1207-12. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.1674.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 25985100 (View on PubMed)

Knockaert DC, Buntinx F, Stoens N, Bruyninckx R, Delooz H. Chest pain in the emergency department: the broad spectrum of causes. Eur J Emerg Med. 2002 Mar;9(1):25-30. doi: 10.1097/00063110-200203000-00007.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 11989492 (View on PubMed)

Huibers L, Giesen P, Smits M, Mokkink H, Grol R, Wensing M. Nurse telephone triage in Dutch out-of-hours primary care: the relation between history taking and urgency estimation. Eur J Emerg Med. 2012 Oct;19(5):309-15. doi: 10.1097/MEJ.0b013e32834d3e67.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 22008589 (View on PubMed)

Nilsson S, Ortoft K, Molstad S. The accuracy of general practitioners' clinical assessment of chest pain patients. Eur J Gen Pract. 2008;14(2):50-5. doi: 10.1080/13814780802342622.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 18720273 (View on PubMed)

Wilcox HM, Vickery AW, Emery JD. Cardiac troponin testing for diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes in primary care. Med J Aust. 2015 Oct 19;203(8):336. doi: 10.5694/mja14.01154.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 26465699 (View on PubMed)

Backus BE, Six AJ, Kelder JC, Mast TP, van den Akker F, Mast EG, Monnink SH, van Tooren RM, Doevendans PA. Chest pain in the emergency room: a multicenter validation of the HEART Score. Crit Pathw Cardiol. 2010 Sep;9(3):164-9. doi: 10.1097/HPC.0b013e3181ec36d8.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 20802272 (View on PubMed)

Leite L, Baptista R, Leitao J, Cochicho J, Breda F, Elvas L, Fonseca I, Carvalho A, Costa JN. Chest pain in the emergency department: risk stratification with Manchester triage system and HEART score. BMC Cardiovasc Disord. 2015 Jun 11;15:48. doi: 10.1186/s12872-015-0049-6.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 26062607 (View on PubMed)

Ishak M, Ali D, Fokkert MJ, Slingerland RJ, Tolsma RT, Badings E, van der Sluis A, van Eenennaam F, Mosterd A, Ten Berg JM, van 't Hof AW. Fast assessment and management of chest pain patients without ST-elevation in the pre-hospital gateway (FamouS Triage): ruling out a myocardial infarction at home with the modified HEART score. Eur Heart J Acute Cardiovasc Care. 2018 Mar;7(2):102-110. doi: 10.1177/2048872616687116. Epub 2017 Jan 13.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 28084079 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

Review additional registry numbers or institutional identifiers associated with this trial.

Rahel2017Urgent

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

More Related Trials

Additional clinical trials that may be relevant based on similarity analysis.

Focused Cardiac Ultrasound
NCT03887286 COMPLETED NA