Highlights from this issue

This month’s editor’s choice is actually a pair of papers: one, a study on the diagnostic characteristics of the T-MACS chest pain risk stratification score AND the other, a paper explaining a key methodological concept used in this and other studies of diagnostic tests, the receiving operator characteristic ROC) curve (Richard Body (an associate editor of EMJ) and colleagues previously developed the MACS rule, which classifies patients as very low risk or very high risk after the results of an initial set of biomarkers are known, TMACS relies on obtaining both high sensitivity troponin and heart-type fatty acid, but the latter biomarker not widely available. A modified rule, the MACS score, uses only high-sensitivity troponin and in the current study the authors evaluate this new rule’s test characteristics, using the ROC curve. Hui Zhe Hoo, Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield and a respiratory physician, explains the...
Source: Emergency Medicine Journal - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Primary survey Source Type: research