[Myocardial infarct in the admissions and emergency service: a particular entity or predominant atypia?...].
The diagnosis of myocardial infarction in patients seen in the emergency ward warrants special attention. As demonstrated by Leconte et al. in this issue of La Presse Médicale, only 61% of them have typical chest pain. Nearly 7% have no pain and even 1.1% have no recognizable symptoms of myocardial infarction at all! These authors also observed that the frequency of atypical presentations increases with age. Emergency ward patients with myocardial infarction are indeed a particular population simply due to the mere fact that their symptoms did not lead to pre-hospital care by a mobile emergency unit. Considering the flow of patients in the emergency ward (myocardial infarction accounts for only 0.4% of diagnoses) and the percentage of patients in cardiac intensive care units referred from the emergency ward (23% in our unit) it is clear that special attention should be given to entertaining the diagnosis of myocardial infarction more widely in the emergency ward, particularly in older patients.
Roupie
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D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis*
L'infarctus du myocarde au service d'accueil et d'urgences: une entité particulière ou la prédominance des atypies?...