Managing chest pain patients in general practice: an interview-based study.

Background: Assessment of chest pain in general practice is challenging. General practitioners (GPs) often feel uncertainty when dealing with chest pain. The role of new diagnostic tools is yet unclear.

Signs and symptoms in adult patients with acute dyspnea: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: Rapid and accurate diagnosis of patients with a new episode of acute dyspnea is a common challenge for Primary Care or Emergency Physicians.

Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of signs and symptoms in adult patients with a new episode of acute dyspnea presenting to a GP or an Emergency Physician (EP).

Patients And Methods: This was a diagnostic systematic review.

Pooled individual patient data from five countries were used to derive a clinical prediction rule for coronary artery disease in primary care.

Objective: To construct a clinical prediction rule for coronary artery disease (CAD) presenting with chest pain in primary care.

Study Design And Setting: Meta-Analysis using 3,099 patients from five studies. To identify candidate predictors, we used random forest trees, multiple imputation of missing values, and logistic regression within individual studies.

The frequency and outcome of acute dyspnoea in primary care: An observational study.

Background: Little is known about the occurrence of acute dyspnoea in primary care and its underlying causes.

Objectives: What are the occurrence and most frequent causes of acute dyspnoea in primary care, predictors of referral, hospitalization, death and possible underlying causes?

Methods: Twenty-five general practitioners (GPs) in Flanders (Belgium) recorded patient contacts for four periods of two weeks during one year. They recorded patients presenting with acute dyspnoea, location of contact (surgery versus home visit), new dyspnoea versus exacerbation, tentative diagnosis, referral to a specialist and hospital, and one month later final diagnosis, its justification, referral, hospitalization and death.

Can the heartscan be used for diagnosis and monitoring of emergencies in general practice?

Introduction: Mostly, it is impossible to establish the type of arrhythmias, based on signs and symptoms only. An ECG device is not always within reach. We presumed the heartscan, a handheld wireless device, to be of value to a GP in emergency situations.

Coronary heart disease in primary care: accuracy of medical history and physical findings in patients with chest pain--a study protocol for a systematic review with individual patient data.

Background: Chest pain is a common complaint in primary care, with coronary heart disease (CHD) being the most concerning of many potential causes. Systematic reviews on the sensitivity and specificity of symptoms and signs summarize the evidence about which of them are most useful in making a diagnosis. Previous meta-analyses are dominated by studies of patients referred to specialists.