Figure 1.

Consort flow diagram. A total of 13 patients were excluded from the study (6 patients withdrew, of 3 patients in the copeptin group, copeptin values were not available, 2 patients were troponin positive at admission, 1 patient had a ST-elevation myocardial infarction at admission, 1 patient had been randomized previously). In 72 copeptin-negative patients in the copeptin group, the treating physician decided that discharge was not possible, 71 of them were admitted to the chest pain units, 1 refused to be admitted. A total of 14 patients (1.6%) were lost to follow-up (FU) at 30 days and not considered in the complete case analysis, 8 in the copeptin and 6 in the standard group, the in-hospital FU was available for all patients. *n = 1 randomized 12 h after admission; n = 1 suspected aortic dissection at admission; **n = 5 patients were lost to 30d-FU but included in the complete case analysis (ITT). Of those n = 4 had an in-hospital major cardiac events (MACE), one patient did not have an initial event but his death date was identified in the German central registry.