Chest pain monitor: A gender comparison of diagnostic treatments in the emergency department

The purpose of this study was to detect if gender affected the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for chest pain in an Emergency Department (ED). This study evaluated the use of a chest pain assessment, Electrocardiograph (ECG), care path protocol, myocardial markers and notification of a cardiologist for an acute myocardial infarction (AMI), as well as, elapsed time of ED arrival to 1st ECG, and 1st ECG interpretation. The eleven-month retrospective analyses used abstracted data on 1870 discharges. Chi-squared analysis and ANOVA were used to determine if a gender bias existed in the use of the different diagnostic procedures (p < 0.05). Results indicated men were not treated more aggressively on the initial presentation of chest pain in the ED. Our findings may suggest that the use of a care path protocol by well-trained ED physicians at this hospital helped in identifying the typical and atypical presentations of chest pain regardless of gender.