Rapid assessment of chest pain

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7334.422

BMJ 2002;324:422 ( 16 February )

Letters

Rapid assessment of chest pain

"Casualty" is outdated term for "emergency medicine"

Chest pain clinics may be one step forward, two steps back

"Casualty" is outdated term for "emergency medicine"

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Rapid assessment of chest pain continues to attract the attention of healthcare planners and providers involved inthe management of this common emergency. Wood et al's editorialon this subject makes cogent arguments for a clinical trial toassess the impact of rapid medical and surgical management ofexertional angina.¹

We are concerned at the terminology used by Wood et al. The term that they use $---$ "casualty" $---$ is outdated and has long been replacedby the term "accident and emergency medicine" or, increasingly,"emergency medicine." It reflects ignorance of the role that trainedspecialists in emergency medicine have in the assessment of suspectedchestpain.

Modern emergency departments, under the supervision of senior doctors trained in emergency medicine, use a wide variety ofdiagnostic tools not mentioned by Wood et al, including cardiacmarkers and continuous ST segment monitoring, to stratify riskfor patients presenting with chest pain. . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Rapid assessment of chest pain: David Wood, Adam Timmis, and Matti Halinen
BMJ 2001 323: 586-587. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Taylor, G L, Murphy, N F, Berry, C, Christie, J, Finlayson, A, MacIntyre, K, Morrison, C, McMurray, J (2008). Long-term outcome of low-risk patients attending a rapid-assessment chest pain clinic. Heart 94: 628-632 [Abstract] [Full text]
Coulshed, D. S, Eslick, G. D, Talley, N. J, Mackenzie, G. M (2002). Non-cardiac chest pain. BMJ 324: 915-915 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Emergency Medicine. What do you mean?: Nigel I Jowett
bmj.com, 18 Feb 2002 [Full text]
Re: Emergency Medicine. What do you mean?: Steve Meek
bmj.com, 26 Feb 2002 [Full text]
Rebranding of casuality to emergency medicine: Andrew P Webster
bmj.com, 27 Feb 2002 [Full text]
Re: Emergency Medicine. What do you mean?: Dr Tajek B. Hassan
bmj.com, 27 Feb 2002 [Full text]
Emergency Medicine - this is what we mean: Cliff Reid MRCP FRCS FFAEM (emergency physician)
bmj.com, 1 Mar 2002 [Full text]
Wake up and smell the Specialty: Louisa Chan
bmj.com, 1 Mar 2002 [Full text]