Bush docs best stick to basics with chest pain
24th March 2014
Bush doctors can dispense with biomarker tests and rely on their clinical skills and an abnormal ECG to diagnose coronary disease, a study from Far North Queensland has shown.
The presence of typical chest pain and an abnormal ECG remain the cornerstone of predicting a diagnosis of coronary heart disease in remote primary care settings, according to Cairns clinicians.
In a ‘real world’ study of 163 patients with no prior history of CHD referred to a chest pain clinic, the only independent predictors of likely CHD were presence of typical angina chest