Prodromal Symptoms In Acute Myocard lal Infarction

Abstract

Introduction:
Acute myocardial infarction is a very common medical emergency. Its prevalence in Pakistan is comparable to that in the West’. It has a very high mortality and of the 50% who die 30% of patients die before receiving medical care; the remaining 20% die over the following days to weeks.

Material and Methods:
One hundred consecutive non-selected patient admitted to the N.I.C.V.D., Karachi, from November 19 -December 12, 1991 were interviewed. These patients were diagnosed as having an acute myocardial infarction according to. The WHO criteria via:

Discussion:
Previous studies indicate that the incidence of prodromal symptoms in patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction ranges from 20-70%. The higher incidences which have been reported more recently in the literature reflect the direct interviewing of patients and relatives rather than obtaining data from hospital records. ^5,6,7•

Conclusions and Recommendations:
As prodromal symptoms occur very commonly in patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarct ion and are not recognized by doctors or patients as an emergency, it is imperative that this prodromal syndrome be explained to the community and phys icians8. Consequently, there is a dire need for patient and physician education as for as recognition and aggressive treatment of prodromata of acute myocardial infarct ion is concerned.