Participant selection and enrolment
chest pain, acute coronary syndrome
ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROME
Eligible patients will be identified by the usual clinical care team in the emergency department or an equivalent acute medical admissions unit or using the electronic medical records after discharge. To ensure that our trial is inclusive and representative of the broad patient population presenting to hospital with suspected acute coronary syndrome, potential participants who are not approached in hospital (e.g. due to out of hours attendance or study team being unavailable) will be identified using electronic medical records or through referral from the clinical team and contacted by telephone to invite them to take part in the study. For the duration of the study, the trial will be incorporated into the clinical pathway for the evaluation of patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome. As part of the standard of care clinical pathway, patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome who are discharged from the emergency department will receive an information leaflet. This contains information about chest pain, a summary of the study, contact details of the research team, and explains that potential participants might be contacted after discharge.Patients who are consented in the hospital will be asked to provide written informed consent whilst patients who are contacted by telephone will be given the option to either attend a study visit to provide written informed consent in person or provide informed consent verbally over the telephone. All patients who are randomised to CTCA will have their consent reaffirmed at the scanning visit and will be asked to sign a consent form before any further research activities are carried out.