This webinar will provide a practical approach to assessing patients who present with chest pain in general practice. It will explore how to distinguish between typical and atypical symptoms, recognise red flags that require urgent referral to the emergency department, and undertake appropriate initial investigations, including ECG interpretation, relevant pathology, and cardiovascular risk assessment.
Participants will gain an understanding of the range of non-invasive cardiac investigations available—such as stress ECG, stress echocardiography, CT coronary angiography, nuclear perfusion imaging, and transthoracic echocardiography—and how to select the most appropriate test based on a patient’s presentation, age, cardiovascular risk profile, and pre-test probability of coronary artery disease. The session will also outline when referral to cardiology is indicated, including situations requiring urgent escalation of care, and highlight common pitfalls in chest pain assessment, such as over- and under-investigation. Case-based discussions will be used to support evidence-based clinical reasoning in real-world general practice scenarios.
In addition, the webinar will introduce the role of interventional radiology in contemporary patient care. It will cover commonly performed procedures relevant to general practice, including image-guided biopsies, drainage and abscess management, joint and spinal injections, varicose vein treatments, uterine fibroid embolisation, and peripheral vascular interventions. Attendees will learn how to identify appropriate indications for referral, determine optimal timing and patient selection, and understand how these minimally invasive options compare with traditional surgical pathways in terms of recovery and patient outcomes.
The session will also guide participants on how to prepare effective referrals to interventional radiology, including the key clinical information required to support timely access to care. It will address contraindications, potential risks, and important counselling points, and use case-based examples to demonstrate how interventional radiology can improve patient outcomes in the community general practice setting.
