HEART Score: Prospective Evaluation of Its Accuracy and Applicability

Background: The History, Electrocardiogram, Age, Risk factors, and Troponin I (HEART) score is a simple method to risk stratify patients with chest pain according to the risk for incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs).

Materials and methods: A 202-patient prospective, single center study at Sri Siddhartha Medical College, Tumkur. Patients included were those who were presented to the emergency department (ED) due to non-traumatic chest pain, irrespective of age or any previous medical treatments, and were later referred to the cardiac care unit (CCU), cardiology department (CD). The end point of the study was the incidence of MACE.

Results: There was a high occurrence of endpoint-myocardial infarction (MI) as MACE among patients with a high-risk HEART score (p < 0.001). About 52 patients (81.3%) who had MI had a high-risk score and 2 patients (3.1%) who had an endpoint of MI had a low-risk score. Sensitivity of HEART score to anticipate MACE was 91%, and the specificity was 80%.

Conclusions: Our prospective study demonstrates the high sensitivity of the HEART score to effectively risk stratify patients and project the phenomenon of MACE. We support the use of the HEART score as a fast and accurate risk stratification tool in the ED.

How to cite this article: Anwar I, Sony D. HEART Score: Prospective Evaluation of Its Accuracy and Applicability. Indian J Crit Care Med 2024;28(8):748-752.