Total resource use and mean per-patient costs by category
| All patients | Patients with an initial undetectable hs-cTn | |||
| Total resource use, n (%*) or mean cost per person (SD) | Total resource use, n (%*) or mean cost per person (SD) | |||
| Usual rule-out strategy (n=295) | LoDED strategy (n=295) | Usual rule-out strategy (n=125) | LoDED strategy (n=122) | |
| Second or third hs-cTn test† | 168 (57) | 124 (42) | 54 (43.2) | 12 (10) |
| Second ECG† | 50 (17) | 59 (20) | 17 (14) | 25 (20) |
| Subsequent nights in hospital | 113 (11) | 241 (13) | 8 (3) | 47 (3) |
| Cardiac procedures (heart bypass, stent and pacemaker) | 9 (3) | 15 (5) | 0 | 0 |
| Additional cardiac tests‡ (eg, echocardiogram and exercise tolerance test) | – | – | 9 (5) | 15 (11) |
| Primary care contacts | – | – | 105 (49) | 107 (53) |
| Subsequent ED contacts | – | – | 10 (6) | 21 (10) |
| Outpatient contacts | – | – | 24 (16) | 29 (19) |
| Costs | ||||
| Initial hospital stay (Including hs-cTn test and ECG) | £210 (£20) | £222 (£22) | £98 (£7) | £91 (£9) |
| Cardiac procedures (heart bypass, stent and pacemaker) | £163 (£65) | £221 (£63) | £0 | £0 |
| Subsequent hospital stay | £56 (£10) | £84 (£14) | £14 (£7) | £24 (£13) |
| Additional cardiac tests‡ (eg, echocardiogram and exercise tolerance test) | – | – | £6 (£3) | £13 (£4) |
| Primary care | – | – | £26 (£5) | £26 (£4) |
| Subsequent ED contacts | – | – | £13(£6) | £27 (£11) |
| Outpatient contacts | – | – | £27 (£6) | £31 (£6) |
*Percentage of total patients with at least one interaction or resource use.
†Captures additional resources use (all participants had at least one hs-cTn test and one ECG test).
‡Additional tests were (% undergoing test in the whole cohort) echocardiogram (4.9%), exercise tolerance test (0.8%), stress echocardiogram (0.4%), CT coronary angiogram (0.8%), invasive coronary angiogram (0.8%), 24-hour cardiac monitor (0.8%) and abdominal ultrasound (0.4%).
ED, emergency department; hs-cTn, high-sensitivity cardiac troponin; LoDED, limit of detection and ECG discharge.