Background. Chest pain is one of the most common causes of presentation to the emergency room. The diagnosis of non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome typically causes uncertainty. Classical considerations for risk stratification are History, ECG, Age, Risk factors and Troponin (HEART). Each can be scored with zero, one or two points, depending on the extent of the abnormality. The HEART score is the sum of these five considerations. Methods. Clinical data from 122 patients referred to the emergency room for chest pain were analysed. The predictive value of the HEART score for reaching an endpoint was evaluated in 120/122 patients. Results. Twenty-nine patients reached one or more endpoints: an acute myocardial infarction was diagnosed in 16 patients, 20 underwent revascularisation and two died. The HEART score in the patients with and without an endpoint was 6.51±1.84 and 3.71±1.83 (p<0.0001) respectively. A HEART score of 0-3 points holds a risk of 2.5% for an endpoint and supports an immediate discharge. With a risk of 20.3%, a HEART score of 4-6 points implies admission for clinical observation. A HEART score ≥7points, with a risk of 72.7%, supports early invasive strategies. Conclusion. The HEART score facilitates accurate diagnostic and therapeutic choices. The HEART score is an easy, quick and reliable predictor of outcome in chest pain patients. (Neth Heart J 2008;16:191-6.)

The HEART score provides the clinician with a quick and reliable predictor of outcome, without computer-required calculating. Low HEART scores (0-3), exclude short-term MACE with >98% certainty. In these patients one might consider reserved policies. In patients with high HEART scores (7-10) the high risk of MACE may indicate more aggressive policies.

Utilization of the HEART score provided excellent determination of risk for 30-day MACE, comparing well with the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction score. This study externally validates previous findings that HEART is a powerful clinical tool in this setting. It quickly identifies both a large proportion of low-risk patients, in whom early discharge without additional testing goes with a risk of MACE of only 1.7%, and high-risk patients who are potential candidates for early invasive strategies.

The HEART score outperformed the GRACE and TIMI scores in discriminating between those with and without MACE in chest pain patients, and identified the largest group of low-risk patients at the same level of safety.