Have you or your loved ones been diagnosed with chest pain?

You may be eligible to participate in a chest pain clinical trial.

Have you or your loved ones been diagnosed with chest pain? You may be eligible to participate in a chest pain clinical trial.

What is a clinical trial? Is participating in a clinical trial right for you? Learn more

Chest Pain Clinical Trial in New Haven CT

NCT02861508 | Interventional

Have you or your loved ones been diagnosed with chest pain?

You may be eligible to participate in a chest pain clinical trial.

Have you or your loved ones been diagnosed with chest pain? You may be eligible to participate in a chest pain clinical trial.

Completed

Male & Female

18 Years +

This study has recruited 170 Participants

The purpose of the proposed research is to examine whether incorporating point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) early in diagnostic work-up of cardiopulmonary complaints will affect diagnosis, time to condition-specific intervention, and ultimately patient outcomes compared to usual care.

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Details for the study

Brief Title

Impact of Immediate Point-of-Care Ultrasound on Patients With Cardiopulmonary Symptoms in the Emergency Department

Official Title

Impact of Immediate Point-of-Care Ultrasound on Patients With Cardiopulmonary Symptoms in the Emergency Department

Brief Summary

The purpose of the proposed research is to examine whether incorporating point-of-care<br /> ultrasound (POCUS) early in diagnostic work-up of cardiopulmonary complaints will affect<br /> diagnosis, time to condition-specific intervention, and ultimately patient outcomes compared<br /> to usual care.

Outcome Measures

Outcome measures are the tests that investigators perform to prove whether or not a treatment being tested in a clinical trial is having any effect.

Primary

Time to appropriate intervention

Based on final diagnosis as determined by final review of the patient's overall visit in the medical record, it will be determined what the appropriate intervention(s) that the patient should have received. Subsequently, the amount of time that elapsed (minutes) between time the patient was roomed in the emergency department (ED) and time to when they received the intervention will be collected. All these time points are readily available in the electronic medical record in the patient care timeline. This outcome will help determine whether early POCUS affects how quickly patients receive appropriate intervention.

Within 30 days of presentation

Secondary

Duration of POCUS

For the early POCUS group, this will be measured as the amount of time (in minutes) between the time the ultrasound is started and the time the last image is captured. All images/video clips acquired by the ultrasound machine have a timestamp. A blank image will be captured at the start of the exam for the initial timestamp. This outcome will examine how time-consuming our POCUS exam is and provides a sense of how disruptive the introduction of POCUS might be if it were implemented routinely.

Within 2 days of presentation

Secondary

Total length of stay

This will be measured as time (in days) between the patient's date of presentation and date of discharge. This outcome will examine if early POCUS affects the amount of time that patients stay in the hospital.

Within 30 days of presentation

Secondary

Time to disposition

This will be measured as amount of time (in minutes) that elapse between the time patient is roomed in the ED to time the treating team determines patient disposition. These timestamps are available in the medical record under the patient care timeline. This outcome will examine if early POCUS affects the time it takes for the treatment team to achieve a disposition plan for the patient.

Within 2 days of presentation

Secondary

Diagnostic certainty

Similar to the outcome of diagnostic accuracy, the treating team in the ED will concomitantly be asked how certain they feel about their diagnosis on a five-point scale. The presence of any changes in certainty (i.e. proportion of patients for whom certainty changed) as well as how much change (e.g. increased certainty by 2 points) will be assessed. This outcome will determine if early POCUS affects physicians' certainty of diagnosis.

Within 2 days of presentation

Secondary

Diagnostic accuracy

The treating team in the ED will be asked for their diagnostic impression of the patient's chief complaint at several points during the patient's time in the ED. These points will be (1) after the primary provider's initial assessment, (2) at time of disposition, and (3) if they are in the early POCUS group, after the POCUS findings are relayed to them. They will select their single most likely diagnosis each time, which will be compared against a final diagnosis as determined by final review of the patient's overall visit in the medical record (as this study's gold standard for diagnosis). This outcome will examine how often (percentage-wise) the treating team's diagnosis matches the final diagnosis as well as if early POCUS has any impact on helping physicians reach the correct diagnosis.

Within 30 days of presentation

Secondary

30-day in-hospital mortality

Patients will be followed in their medical record for up to 30 days after their initial presentation to assess for in-hospital mortality rate. This outcome will examine if early POCUS leads to any significant difference in patient mortality rate compared to usual care.

Within 30 days of presentation

Other

Return visits with missed diagnosis

The patient's medical record will be followed for 30 days after initial presentation for the presence of any repeat visits with the healthcare system for a similar chief complaint. If so, that repeat visit will be reviewed for the presence of a different diagnosis than that established at the original visit, which would suggest that the correct diagnosis had been missed at that time. It will then be determined what the percentage of patients is with such visits out of all patients in the study. This outcome will examine if POCUS helps with picking up diagnoses that might be missed otherwise.

Within 30 days of presentation

Study Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

  -  Chief complaint of chest pain, dyspnea (either sudden onset or increased severity of
     chronic dyspnea), syncope, or hypotension (systolic blood pressure <100 or shock index
     [heart rate divided by systolic blood pressure] >1)

Exclusion Criteria:

  -  <18 years old

  -  Prisoner or ward of the state

  -  Trauma

  -  High acuity requiring treatment in resuscitation room

  -  Obvious cause of symptoms (e.g. acute GI bleed causing hypotension)

  -  Any form of "do not resuscitate" (DNR) order

  -  Roomed in hall of emergency department (location not amenable to ultrasound protocol)