Performance of HEART and TIMI scores in predicting major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) of chest pain patients in the emergency department

Abstract

Objective: To compare the value of HEART and TIMI scores in predicting major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) of patients with chest pain in the emergency department at a tertiary care hospital in Ahmedabad, a city in western India. Methods: A prospective study was conducted on chest pain patients from January to December 2019. All adult patients with non-traumatic chest pain presenting to the emergency department were included, and their HEART and TIMI scores were evaluated. The patients were followed up within 4 weeks for monitoring any major adverse cardiac events or death. The receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) curve was used to determine the value of HEART and TIMI scores in predicting MACEs. Besides, the specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of the two scores were assessed and compared. Results: A total of 350 patients were evaluated [mean age (55.03±16.6) years, 56.6% of males]. HEART score had the highest predictive value of MACEs with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.98, followed by the TIMI score with an AUC of 0.92. HEART score had the highest specificity of 98.0% (95% CI: 96.4%-99.6%), the sensitivity of 75.0% (95% CI: 70.7%-79.3%), and PPV of 97.0% (95% CI: 94.1%-99.9%) and NPV of 82.5% (95% CI: 74.6%-90.4%) for low-risk patients. TIMI score had a specificity of 95.0% (95% CI: 92.4%-97.6%), sensitivity of 75.0% (95% CI: 69.4%-80.6%), PPV of 92.3% (95% CI: 88.1%-96.5%) and NPV of 82.3% (95% CI: 73.8%-90.8%) for low-risk patients. Conclusions: HEART score is an easier and more practical triage instrument to identify chest pain patients with low-risk for MACEs compared to TIMI score. Patients with high HEART scores have a higher risk of MACEs and require early therapeutic intervention and aggressive management.