Hellenic journal of cardiology : HJC = Hellēnikē kardiologikē epitheōrēsē
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Acute aortic dissection (AAD), acute pulmonary embolism (PE) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are all emergent diseases with acute chest pain. However, it is sometimes difficult to diagnose these diseases by symptoms, ECG changes and/or cardiac biomarkers, especially immediately after onset. Because these diseases are all thrombogenic diseases, we considered that D-dimer could be helpful to differentiate these diseases. The purpose of this research was to define the D-dimer value for discrimination between AAD, PE and AMI. ⋯ Our study showed the possibility that D-dimer could enable faster diagnosis and treatment of AAD, PE and AMI patients. We expect that the D-dimer test will be used more often for screening patients with possible AAD, PE or AMI in the emergency room. We would recommend contrast computed tomography first, not coronary angiography, in a patient with a D-dimer level higher than 5.0 g/ml using our diagnostic kit.