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

Haasenritter, Jörg; Aerts, Marc; Bösner, Stefan; Buntinx, Frank; Burnand, Bernard; Herzig, Lilli; Knottnerus, J André; Minalu, Girma; Nilsson, Staffan; Renier, Walter; Sox, Carol; Sox, Harold; Donner-Banzhoff, Norbert

doi:10.1186/1471-2296-13-81

Table 2 Characteristics of studies identified to date

From: 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

Characteristic	Sox et al.[8]	Buntinx et al.[23]	Nilsson et al.[27]	Verdon et al.[2]	Bösner et al.[28]	Haasenritter et al.[29]
Data collection	1982	1988	1998-2000	2001	2005-2006	2009-2010
Country	USA	Belgium	Sweden	Switzerland	Germany	Germany
Setting	66 PCPs at 1 Drop-in clinic	25 PCPs	3 health care centres each served by 4 PCPs	58 PCPs in private practice	74 PCPs in private practice	56 PCPs in private practice
Number of patients	404*	323	554	672	1249	880
Inclusion criteria	Chest pain as presenting complaint, no age limitation (ages were 17 to 81 years; average 41 years)	New episode of chest pain, discomfort or tightness as main or ancillary complaint	New episode of chest pain, discomfort or tightness as presenting complaint; aged 20–79 years; patients were excluded: if acute MI or coronary re-vascularization during the previous year	Chest pain as main or ancillary complaint; age ≥ 16 years	Chest pain as main or ancillary complaint; age ≥ 35 years; excluded: chest pain ≥ 1 one month, or had already been investigated	Chest pain as main or ancillary complaint; age ≥ 35 years; excluded: chest pain ≥ 1 one month, or had already been investigated
		No age limitation (ages were 17 to 81 years;average 41 years)	No age limitation (ages were 1 to 88 years; average 45 years)
Reference standard	Delayed-type reference standard	Delayed-type reference standard	Delayed-type reference standard	Delayed-type reference standard	Delayed-type reference standard	Delayed-type reference standard
Duration of follow-up	Average time to diagnosis: 2 months (range – to 8 months)	2 weeks to 2 months	3 months	12 months	6 months	6 months
RD established by	2 internist-investigators independently assigned diagnosis.	Treating physicians	Treating physicians	Treating physicians	Independent expert panel (1GP, 1 cardiologist, 1 research fellow)	Independent expert panel (1GP, 1 research fellow)
Prevalence of CHD as cause of chest pain	7.2%	9.6%	11.2%	12.6%	14.4%	10.6%

RD reference diagnosis, MI myocardial infarction, PCP primary care physician.
*The number of patients is greater than as previously reported [8] because it includes patients excluded in the published study (diagnosis was acute MI, first episode of chest pain).

Back to article page

ISSN: 2731-4553

Contact us

General enquiries: journalsubmissions@springernature.com

BMC Primary Care

Contact us