Are Cardiac Risk Factors of Value in ED Diagnosis of ACS?

Population-based studies have shown that diabetes, hypertension, smoking, hypercholesterolemia, and family history of coronary vascular disease are correlated with an increased lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease. Clinicians often use cardiac risk factors in the assessment of patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS), but Bayesian theory dictates that the diagnostic value of the risk factors would not apply to individual patients. In a retrospective analysis of nearly 11,000 emergency department patients with suspected ACS, researchers evaluated the association between risk factor burden (number of factors) and ACS.

Patients were considered to have ACS if they underwent revascularization within 30 days, had a discharge diagn…