Impact of stress testing on 30-day cardiovascular outcomes for low-risk patients with chest pain admitted to floor telemetry beds

The role of immediate stress testing in low-risk patients with a potential acute coronary syndrome has not been rigorously evaluated with respect to impact on 30-day cardiovascular events. We evaluated the impact of inpatient, outpatient, or no stress testing (ETT) on 30-day cardiovascular outcomes. We performed a prospective cohort study in which consecutive patients with chest pain were admitted to a non-intensive-care telemetry bed over 16 months. Patients were identified in the ED, followed daily through hospitalization, and contacted by telephone at 30 days. Patients were excluded if they were admitted to the coronary care unit, died during hospitalization, sustained an acute myocardial infarction (AMI), or received cardiac catheterization before ETT. Patients were stratified according to whether they received an ETT as an inpatient, outpatient, or no ETT. Main outcomes were 30-day cardiac death, AMI, percutaneous interventions (PCI), and coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). Data are presented as percentages with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for main outcomes. A total of 832 patients were admitted 962 times. A total of 205 patients (21%) received an in-house ETT. Seventy-four patients (10%) without an inpatient ETT received an outpatient ETT. At baseline, the groups were similar with respect to likelihood of ischemia based on mean ACI-TIPI score and Goldman risk score. A total of 98% of patients had 30-day follow-up. The cardiovascular outcomes (with 95% confidence interval) for patients with inpatient ETT versus outpatient ETT versus no ETT were as follows: death, 0% (0–1.5%) vs 0% (0–4.1%) vs1% (0.3–1.7%); AMI, 1% (0.1–2.4%) vs 1.4% (0.1–4.1%) vs 0.3% (0.1–0.7%); PCI, 0.5% (0.1–1.5%) vs 1.3% (0.1–4.1%) vs 0% (0–0.4%); and CABG, 0.5% (0.1–1.5%) vs 0% (0–4.1%) vs 0.2% (0.1–0.4%). There was no statistical difference in 30-day cardiovascular outcomes among patients who received inpatient, outpatient, or no ETT within 30 days. This suggests that patients with chest pain who are admitted to non-intensive-care telemetry (or observation unit) beds might not need stress testing before hospital release.