Assessing Chest Pain.

Revised guidelines by a joint committee of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have been released to improve early identification and management of chest pain. Clinical goals of the guidelines are to identify life-threatening causes of chest pain, determine a patient's clinical stability, and assess whether the patient needs to be hospitalized or can safely be treated on an outpatient basis. For patients who don't require immediate intervention, risk stratification assessment and following clinical decision pathways are recommended.