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Sharp chest pain is not always signal a heart attack
A sharp chest pain does not always mean that someone who enters an emergency room is suffering a heart attack, according to a study of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (USA) published in 'Annals of Emergency Medicine.
The research team found that more severe chest pains were not a good indicator who were suffering a heart attack, nor indicated which patients were more likely to have one in the next month.
Furthermore, it also proved otherwise and that 'if chest pain is not serious, that does not mean that it is a heart attack, "explains one of the authors of the study, Anna Marie Chang.
Based on a scale of zero to ten, where zero represents no pain and 10 the worst pain imaginable, the researchers assessed pain levels of about 3,300 patients who came to the hospital emergency department at UPenn (USA) complaining of pain in the chest.
The researchers followed patients for 30 days to see who had more cardiac events and found that patients with more severe pain were no more likely to suffer a heart attack or have one in the next month than those with milder pain . Similarly, Heartburn No More the pain lasted more than an hour was not a useful sign of stroke.
The issue is that 'the pain of a heart attack is not always recorded in the chest, but may be in the chest, arm, back of the jaw or abdomen', say the doctors.
The failure to diagnose acute myocardial infarction accounted for 30 percent of malpractice claims, according to study authors, and between 2 and 5 percent of stroke patients are discharged mistakenly rooms emergency.
However, while the severity of pain was not a good indicator of who was suffering a heart attack in the hospital, if it was to have come to the emergency room by ambulance. 'This is because many people often expect when they suffer chest pain symptoms until they are considered serious enough to call the emergency services, "explains the emergency physician at Boston Medical Center, James Feldman, who not involved in the study.
'The cause of chest pain may or may not a heart attack, but it definitely could be something serious, "Feldman concluded.
The research team found that more severe chest pains were not a good indicator who were suffering a heart attack, nor indicated which patients were more likely to have one in the next month.
Furthermore, it also proved otherwise and that 'if chest pain is not serious, that does not mean that it is a heart attack, "explains one of the authors of the study, Anna Marie Chang.
Based on a scale of zero to ten, where zero represents no pain and 10 the worst pain imaginable, the researchers assessed pain levels of about 3,300 patients who came to the hospital emergency department at UPenn (USA) complaining of pain in the chest.
The researchers followed patients for 30 days to see who had more cardiac events and found that patients with more severe pain were no more likely to suffer a heart attack or have one in the next month than those with milder pain . Similarly, Heartburn No More the pain lasted more than an hour was not a useful sign of stroke.
The issue is that 'the pain of a heart attack is not always recorded in the chest, but may be in the chest, arm, back of the jaw or abdomen', say the doctors.
The failure to diagnose acute myocardial infarction accounted for 30 percent of malpractice claims, according to study authors, and between 2 and 5 percent of stroke patients are discharged mistakenly rooms emergency.
However, while the severity of pain was not a good indicator of who was suffering a heart attack in the hospital, if it was to have come to the emergency room by ambulance. 'This is because many people often expect when they suffer chest pain symptoms until they are considered serious enough to call the emergency services, "explains the emergency physician at Boston Medical Center, James Feldman, who not involved in the study.
'The cause of chest pain may or may not a heart attack, but it definitely could be something serious, "Feldman concluded.
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