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Most patients who present to the emergency department with chest pain in the context of recent cocaine use do not have acute coronary syndromes (ACS). These patients commonly are admitted to observation or chest pain units, where they undergo serial cardiac biomarker measurements and electrocardiography to rule out ACS and then are discharged. Rates of death and recurrent myocardial infarction within 30 days after the ED visit are very low in this population, but we don’t know much about their longer-term outcomes.
Researchers prospectively evaluated outcomes during 1 year in 219 adult patients who presented to an urban ED with chest pain related to cocaine use (positive urine toxicology) and in whom ACS was ruled out by serial cardiac bioma…