title: Patients admitted to the emergency room with symptoms indicative of acute myocardial infarction.
abstract: All 7157 patients (55% men) admitted to the emergency room with chest pain or other symptoms indicative of acute myocardial infarction during a period of 21 months were registered consecutively. Chest pain was reported by 93% of the patients. On the basis of history, clinical examination, and electrocardiogram in the emergency room, all patients were prospectively classified in one of four categories: (i) obvious infarction (4% of all patients); (ii) strongly suspected infarction (20%); (iii) vague suspicion of infarction (35%); and (iv) no suspected infarction (41%). In patients with no suspected infarction (n = 2910), musculoskeletal (26%), obscure (21%) and psychogenic origins (16%) of the symptoms occurred most frequently. We conclude that few of the patients had an obvious infarction on admission, and that a musculoskeletal origin of the symptoms occurred most frequently in patients with no suspected infarction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine I, Sahlgrenska Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden.
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Karlson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Herlitz
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pettersson
authors.forename: H E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Ekvall
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hjalmarson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000209:etiology; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D004358:Drug Therapy; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010343:Patient Admission; D012907:Smoking; D013548:Sweden; D014187:Transportation of Patients