Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2005

Mentor: Lynn Roppolo, MD and Kurt Kleinschmidt, MD
Department: Division of Emergency Medicine (Dept of Surgery)
Room number: North Texas Poison Center
Mail Code: 8579
Phone number: 214-590-1354
E-mail: Lynn.Roppolo@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: Databank of patients with possible acute coronary syndromes: Characteristics, demographics, and serum

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): Pending

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): Not applicable

Project Type: patient-based

Brief Description of Project:
The purpose of the project is to establish a databank of patient characteristics, demographic information, and blood serum that can be applied to soon to be established cardiac makers. The new marker outcomes would be compared with the current Parkland Memorial Hospital standard of care for the assessment of patients who present to the emergency department with chest pain.

Eligible patients, those with a "possible" acute coronary syndrome (ACS), will receive the current standard of care assessment as dictated by the Parkland Chest Pain Protocol. This includes the arrival EKG and the nine-hour EKG; troponin I done upon arrival, at three hours, at six hours, and at nine hours; and continuous telemetry monitoring. In accordance with the standard, a saline lock is established upon patient arrival and blood draws are done via the saline lock..

Patients entered into the trial will have the standard blood draws done at times zero, three hours, six hours, and nine hours. Patient care and dispositions will be based on the current standard of care.

Study patients will have one extra tube of blood (a red top; ~ 5 mL) obtained with each blood draw. Study patients will also have a 90-minute blood draw done. The 90 minute blood draw would also be obtained via the saline lock. Study tubes will be labeled with a specific study ID number and time of draw. Study tubes will be standard serum separating red top tubes. A member of the research team will centrifuge the tubes and separate the serum into smaller aliquots. The aliquots would be frozen.

At the time of the initial evaluation in the ED, a member of the research team will complete an initial evaluation case report form. It is a one-page form with check-box answers.

Follow-up of patients entered into the study will be accomplished by various methods. All study patients will receive a 30 day follow-up telephone call to learn how the patient has done, if any risk stratification tests were done, if any follow-up health visits or hospitalizations have occurred. If a patient was re-evaluated within the Parkland Health and Hospital System, the OACIS Data Repository System will be assessed for details. A follow-up case report form will be used for this data.

Students participating in this project will:
Enroll patients into the trial
Interview patients so as to complete the data form
Obtain blood specimens for the trial
Spin the blood specimens down and divide the serum into small aliquots
Enter data into an established ACCESS database
Perform 30 days follow-up telephone calls to enrolled patients.
The operation runs 24 hours a day; 5 ½ days per week. The weekends are off-time.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:
We did the same study last year. We are adding to our database.

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