Heart rate variability in the risk stratification of emergency department patients with chest pain

Chest pain is the second most common presenting complaint in the emergency department (ED), accounting for 8 –10 million ED visits per year and between $10–13 billion dollars per year in ED costs [1, 2]. Several scoring systems developed recently have attempted to stratify patients based on their risk for major adverse cardiac events. The HEART score is a prospectively studied scoring system designed t o identify patients who are at highest risk of a major adverse cardiac event (MACE) in the next 6 weeks [3-5], and this score is used as a part of chest pain management protocols in many hospitals.
Source: The American Journal of Emergency Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Source Type: research