Risk stratification of the undifferentiated chest pain patients in the Emergency Department continues to plague emergency physicians. It's partly the reason why I created a TIMI risk score card for unstable angina and non-ST elevation MI in 2010.
Have you heard of the 9-variable GRACE risk stratification score? Thanks to Jeff Bray (physician assistant in a rural critical access ED), I have now. He graciously shared his personal reference card on this with me, which I only minimally reformatted to fit my Paucis Verbis card dimensions.
GRACE stands for Global Registry for Acute Coronary Events. It supposedly outperforms the TIMI scoring slightly in accurately predicting complications in the short and long term. Instead of calculating this manually, which can be a pain, now there are calculators out there:
Anyone use this scoring system?
Feel free to download this card and print on a 4'' x 6'' index card.
See other Paucis Verbis cards.
Reference
- Eagle KA, et al; GRACE Investigators. A validated prediction model for all forms of acute coronary syndrome: estimating the risk of 6-month postdischarge death in an international registry. JAMA. 2004 Jun 9;291(22):2727-33. Pubmed .
- D'Ascenzo F, et al. TIMI, GRACE and alternative risk scores in Acute Coronary Syndromes: A meta-analysis of 40 derivation studies on 216,552 patients and of 42 validation studies on 31,625 patients. Contemp Clin Trials. 2012 May;33(3):507-14. Pubmed .
