Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (8)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Buntinx, F
Right arrow Articles by Delooz, H
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Buntinx, F
Right arrow Articles by Delooz, H
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Family Practice Vol. 18, No. 6, 586-589
© Oxford University Press 2001

Original Paper

Chest pain in general practice or in the hospital emergency department: is it the same?

F Buntinxa,c, D Knockaertb, R Bruyninckxa, N de Blaeyc, M Aertsd, JA Knottnerusc and H Deloozb

a Department of General Practice, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven,
b Department of Emergency Medicine, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven,
d Department of Statistics, University Centre of Limburg, Diepenbeek, Belgium and
c Department of General Practice, University of Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Professor Dr Frank Buntinx, Department of General Practice, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 33, blok J, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.

Objective. The aim of the present study was to provide a description of the impact of setting on the diagnostic case mix that is identified in consecutive patients presenting with chest pain.

Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out of patients presenting with chest pain according to setting: general practice, self-referred, referred or arriving by ambulance at the hospital emergency department (ED). GPs from 25 general practices situated in the Flemish part of Belgium were recruited, and the hospital involved was a major teaching hospital in the same area. A total of 320 patients in general practice and 580 patients in the hospital ED were studied. The difference in prevalence rates for the major diagnostic categories was the main outcome measure.

Results. Gastrointestinal disorders, musculoskeletal problems and psychopathology are identified more frequently in general practice; and serious lung diseases and cardiovascular diseases in the hospital ED. Within the hospital, there is a strong trend towards increasing frequency of serious cardiovascular diseases including unstable angina (P = 0.01) from self-referred to referred patients and those rushed in by ambulance. The opposite trend was identified for respiratory (P = 0.02) and musculoskeletal (P = 0.07) diseases. The diagnostic case mix in self-referred patients tends to be more similar to the other groups of hospital patients than to patients in general practice.

Conclusions. There is a large difference between the diagnostic case mix presented in general practice compared with the ED and among referral-related subgroups within the hospital emergency department.

Keywords. Chest pain, general practice, hospital emergency department, referral.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Fam PractHome page
M. A. Hani, H. Keller, J. Vandenesch, A. C Sonnichsen, F. Griffiths, and N. Donner-Banzhoff
Different from what the textbooks say: how GPs diagnose coronary heart disease
Fam. Pract., December 1, 2007; 24(6): 622 - 627.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.