[Assessment of non-traumatic chest pain in emergency room: comparison between heart score and triage assessment of an Italian hospital]. / La valutazione del dolore toracico non traumatico in pronto soccorso: confronto tra heart score e il triage di un ospedale italiano.

INTRODUCTION: Triage for non-traumatic chest pain is a difficult issue for nurses in Emergency Department. AIM: To compare sensibility and specificity of usual triage and HEART score. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted in the Emergency Room of Città della Salute e della Scienza - Molinette Hospital of Turin (Italy). Data about triage of patients with non-traumatic chest pain were retrieved and HEART score was calculated by a nurse blind to the triage assessment. RESULTS: Data on 428 patients were collected. The assessment with the HEART score showed a significantly higher sensitivity and specificity, respect to usual triage (p-value for comparison: 0.01 and 0.0001, respectively). Moreover the HEART score better identified patients with delayed risk. CONCLUSIONS: HEART score can be considered a more effective tool for the assessment of patients with non-traumatic chest pain.