Jul 3 (HeartCenterOnline) - A new study has revealed a new method of determining whether chest pain is related to a heart attack, according to a news brief recently issued by the American College of Cardiology. While more than 1.5 million Americans report to emergency rooms each year with chest pain, only a small percentage of those patients are experiencing heart attacks, according to the ACC.

Chest pain refers to pressure, squeezing or general discomfort in the chest area, which includes the heart, breast and neck areas. Any pressure or pain in the chest area is collectively referred to as chest pain. Patients experiencing chest pain should always seek medical attention.

Chest pain can be a symptom of a coronary event, such as a heart attack, or a serious illness, such as coronary artery disease. However, chest pain can also be caused by less serious problems such as heartburn, anxiety, bronchitis and other conditions. It is therefore important that emergency medical professionals have reliable tests to identify whether a patient's chest pain is related to a coronary event.

The recent study examined 192 ER patients with a test called electron beam computed tomography (EBCT), otherwise known as ultrafast computed tomography (ultrafast CT).

Ultrafast CT is an imaging technique for taking multiple clear pictures of the beating heart and the calcium in the coronary arteries. The goal of this test is to measure the calcium deposits in the coronary arteries, which gives the physician a good indication of how much hardened or calcified plaque has built up within those arteries.

Researchers found that the presence of calcification in the coronary arteries (as determined with ultrafast CT) was strongly related to the patient's risk of heart attack, other heart-related problems or death. In addition, researchers found that patients whose ultrafast CT scans showed the absence of calcified plaque had a very low risk of future heart problems.

Use of the ultrafast CT can therefore help ER professionals determine which chest pain patients are safe to discharge from the hospital, concluded the ACC news brief.

Ultrafast CT is noninvasive, generally painless and takes only a few minutes. More information on this test can be found in the HeartCenterOnline encyclopedia article Ultrafast Computed Tomography.

Other HeartCenterOnline topic centers and encyclopedia articles of interest include:
Chest Pain
The Heart Attack Center

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