Chest pain and prehospital delay

Abstract

Aim was to show the duration of chest pain in patients with Angina pectoris (AP) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) prior to reporting to the ambulance as well as the patients' self management of the pain. Materials and methods. The study was done between 1st August 2014th and 1st October 2018th in the infirmary of EMS in Belgrade. The study involved 161 patients, out of 9437 patients in total, who were treated by one doctor and with confirmed or suspected diagnosis of an ACS or AP. Results. Patients with AP most commonly waited between 2-24 hours, while the patients with ACS waited <1h from the pain onset until contacting EMS. Most patients with MI (17) as well as with AP (79) did not take any kind of therapy, while some patients administered one or more drugs in order to relieve the pain. In patients with AP, the drugs of choice were antihypertensive medications (17.42%) and in MI patients Nitroglycerin and analgesics (31.03%). All patients previously diagnosed with MI and AP have self-administered Nitroglycerin in 12.42% of cases. Conclusion. Patients with AP wait longer when having chest pain before calling EMS from patients with ACS, but their self-administered drugs of choice were antihypertensive medications. Nitroglycerine as the first appropriate drug of choice is used less and in most cases patients even do not have it readily available.