A study has shown a new test can almost always determine if a patient suffered a heart attack within the first hour of it occurring.
The study examined 1320 patients presenting to emergency departments and accurately diagnosed 75 per cent of the patients. The remaining 318 patients were placed in the “observational zone”, and 59 were later diagnosed with a heart attack.
The test only missed one patient whose initial diagnosis was determined to be incorrect.
Original research paper published in CMAJ on April 13, 2015.
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