One-third with heart disease misdiagnosed

MARBURG, Germany, July 14 (UPI) -- About one-third of coronary heart disease may go unrecognized or misdiagnosed, researchers in Germany found.

Stefan Bosner of the Universitat Marburg and colleagues said when a patient presents with chest pain as the main symptom, the primary care physician has to decide whether immediate action is called for or whether watchful waiting is an option.

In the diagnostic cross-sectional study, the study authors evaluated the data of a total of 1,249 patients age 35 and older presented to 74 participating family doctors with chest pain.

The study, published in the Deutsches Arzteblatt International, found of the 180 patients in the study sample in whom a reference committee later identified coronary heart disease -- 57 patients, or 31.7 percent, had initially been misdiagnosed by their family doctors as not having coronary heart disease.

"In view of the number of missed cases of coronary heart disease, there is an argument for considering a diagnosis of coronary heart disease in patients with less pronounced symptoms," the study says.

However, the researchers believe that if the "diagnostic threshold" were to be lowered, the result would be a dramatic rise in false positive diagnoses, Bosner says.