Evaluation of the Utility of Telemetry in Patients Admitted for Chest Pain Who Are at Low Risk for Acute Coronary Syndrome

This is a randomized controlled, multi-center, non-blinded non-inferiority study examining the utility of telemetry monitoring in patients admitted who are low risk for acute coronary syndrome. Each of the six sites will prospectively enroll 250 patients in each arm of the study randomized to either a med-surg bed (no telemetry) or a telemetry bed during their admission. Research study coordinators will enroll patients and then follow them throughout their hospital course and record primary and secondary end point events.

The research coordinators will collect information on the following items for data collection: age, gender, smoking history, history of hypertension, history of diabetes mellitus, history of hypercholesterolemia, and history of family member with early heart disease or myocardial infarction, and body mass index. Research coordinators will document if the patient had any of the following events during their hospital course: death, myocardial infarction (MI), upgrade to a higher level of care, dysrhythmia, results of any stress testing or cardiac catheterization. In addition patients will be contacted at 30 days and 365 days to inquire about MI, needing for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), or revascularization (CABG).

Based on previous studies, we hypothesize that patients aged 18-49 years who are at low risk for Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) are unlikely to benefit from continuous heart monitoring while admitted to the hospital for chest pain. We suspect that the rate of significant events may approach zero in this group of participants. This study aim is to show that a bed without remote monitoring- telemetry- is adequate when these low risk participants with chest pain are hospitalized.