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Prevalence, Clinical Characteristics, and Mortality Among Patients With Myocardial Infarction Presenting Without Chest Pain
CONTEXT Although chest pain is widely considered a key symptom in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction (MI), not all patients with MI present with chest pain. The extent to which this phenomenon occurs is largely unknown. OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency with which patients with MI present wi...
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Published in: | JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 2000-06, Vol.283 (24), p.3223-3229 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | CONTEXT Although chest pain is widely considered a key symptom in the diagnosis
of myocardial infarction (MI), not all patients with MI present with chest
pain. The extent to which this phenomenon occurs is largely unknown. OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency with which patients with MI present without
chest pain and to examine their subsequent management and outcome. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING AND PATIENTS A total of 434,877 patients with confirmed MI enrolled June 1994 to
March 1998 in the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction 2, which includes
1674 hospitals in the United States. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Prevalence of presentation without chest pain; clinical characteristics,
treatment, and mortality among MI patients without chest pain vs those with
chest pain. RESULTS Of all patients diagnosed as having MI, 142,445 (33%) did not have chest
pain on presentation to the hospital. This group of MI patients was, on average,
7 years older than those with chest pain (74.2 vs 66.9 years), with a higher
proportion of women (49.0% vs 38.0%) and patients with diabetes mellitus (32.6%
vs 25.4%) or prior heart failure (26.4% vs 12.3%). Also, MI patients without
chest pain had a longer delay before hospital presentation (mean, 7.9 vs 5.3
hours), were less likely to be diagnosed as having confirmed MI at the time
of admission (22.2% vs 50.3%), and were less likely to receive thrombolysis
or primary angioplasty (25.3% vs 74.0%), aspirin (60.4% vs 84.5%), β-blockers
(28.0% vs 48.0%), or heparin (53.4% vs 83.2%). Myocardial infarction patients
without chest pain had a 23.3% in-hospital mortality rate compared with 9.3%
among patients with chest pain (adjusted odds ratio for mortality, 2.21 [95%
confidence interval, 2.17-2.26]). CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that patients without chest pain on presentation
represent a large segment of the MI population and are at increased risk for
delays in seeking medical attention, less aggressive treatments, and in-hospital
mortality. |
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ISSN: | 0098-7484 1538-3598 |
DOI: | 10.1001/jama.283.24.3223 |