Table 2 Physicians’ appraisal of the importance of different aspects of the diagnostic process along a five-point Likert scale (n = 100)
Degree of importance | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aspects of the diagnostic process | Very important | Fairly important | Neither important nor unimportant | A little important | Very little important | Mean value |
(5) | (4) | (3) | (2) | (1) | ||
Patient's symptoms/history | 80 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4.8 |
"Negative" ECG findings | 3 | 25 | 23 | 46 | 3 | 2.8 |
Effect of sublingual nitroglycerine | 5 | 36 | 22 | 29 | 8 | 3.0 |
Chest wall tenderness | 3 | 44 | 26 | 25 | 2 | 3.2 |
"Positive" ECG findings | 90 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.9 |
Clinical examination | 22 | 50 | 17 | 11 | 0 | 3.8 |