Revista médica de Chile
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In large series, nearly 60% of admissions for suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) had a non-coronary etiology of the pain. However, short term mortality of non recognized ACS patients, mistakenly discharged from the emergency room is at least twice greater than the expected if they would had been admitted. The concept of a chest pain unit (CPU) is a methodological approach developed to address these issues. ⋯ Structured risk evaluation approach in a CPU improves the management of acute chest pain, identifying high probability patients for fast admission and start of treatment in a CU and allowing safe discharge of low probability ones.