Management of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) should be guided by an estimate of patient risk. To develop a simple model to assess the risk for in-hospital mortality for the entire spectrum of ACS treated in general clinical practice. A multivariable logistic regression model was developed using 11 389 patients (including 509 in-hospital deaths) with ACS with and without ST-segment elevation enrolled in the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) from April 1, 1999, through March 31, 2001. Validation data sets included a subsequent cohort of 3972 patients enrolled in GRACE and 12 142 in the Global Use of Strategies to Open Occluded Coronary Arteries IIb (GUSTO-IIb) trial. The following 8 independent risk factors accounted for 89.9% of the prognostic information: age (odds ratio [OR], 1.7 per 10 years), Killip class (OR, 2.0 per class), systolic blood pressure (OR, 1.4 per 20-mm Hg decrease), ST-segment deviation (OR, 2.4), cardiac arrest during presentation (OR, 4.3), serum creatinine level (OR, 1.2 per 1-mg/dL [88.4- micro mol/L] increase), positive initial cardiac enzyme findings (OR, 1.6), and heart rate (OR, 1.3 per 30-beat/min increase). The discrimination ability of the simplified model was excellent with c statistics of 0.83 in the derived database, 0.84 in the confirmation GRACE data set, and 0.79 in the GUSTO-IIb database. Across the entire spectrum of ACS and in general clinical practice, this model provides excellent ability to assess the risk for death and can be used as a simple nomogram to estimate risk in individual patients.

This report presents data on U.S. emergency department (ED) visits in 2007, with statistics on hospital, patient, and visit characteristics. Data are from the 2007 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, which uses a national probability sample of visits to emergency departments of nonfederal general and short-stay hospitals in the United States. Sample data were weighted to produce annual national estimates. In 2007, there were about 117 million ED visits in the United States. About 25 percent of visits were covered by Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). About one-fifth of ED visits by children younger than 15 years of age were to pediatric EDs. There were 121 ED visits for asthma per 10,000 children under 5 years of age. The leading injury-related cause of ED visits was unintentional falls. Two percent of visits resulted in admission to an observation unit. Electronic medical records were used in 62 percent of EDs.

To evaluate the diagnosis of myocardial infarction using a high sensitivity troponin I assay and sex specific diagnostic thresholds in men and women with suspected acute coronary syndrome.