Admission of patients with chest pain and/or breathlessness from the emergency department in relation to risk assessment and copeptin levels - an observational study.

Background: One of the most critical decisions that emergency department (ED) physicians make is the discharge versus admission of patients. We aimed to study the association of the decision in the ED to admit patients with chest pain and/or breathlessness to a ward with risk assessment using the Rapid Emergency Triage and Treatment System (RETTS), the National Early Warning Score (NEWS), and plasma levels of the biomarkers copeptin, midregional proadrenomedulin (MR-proADM), and midregional proatrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP). Methods: Patients presenting at the ED with chest pain and/or breathlessness with less than one week onset were enrolled. Patients were triaged according to RETTS. NEWS was calculated from the vital signs retrospectively. Conclusions: saturation, heart rate, NEWS category, and copeptin. As an independent predictive marker for admission, early analysis of copeptin might be beneficial when improving patient pathways at the ED.