Description of chest pain patients in the Emergency Department of a central hospital in Ajman

Abstract

Abstract Chest pain accounts for 8 million visits to the Emergency Department annually, which contributes to 5% to 10% of all ED visits. A recent study revealed that between 2% to 5% of acute coronary syndrome patients visiting the emergency department were missed without being diagnosed correctly. Study design: retrospective cross-sectional study, we analyzed the database in SKGH emergency department for all patients presenting with chest pain, between November 2017 and October 2019, using SPSS program. Analysis included: Demographics: age, sex, country of origin and mode of arrival. Medical data: vital signs, triage grade, pain scale, seen within 72 hours or not, discharged within 7 days or not, final diagnosis and predisposition. Exclusion criteria: patients less than 18 years old. Two hundred patients met the inclusion criteria. Results: Mean age of the studied population was 49.22± 12.65, Male to female ratio was 2:1, mode of transport by Walking 94 (47%), private vehicle 50 (25%) and by ambulance 31(15.5%). Majority of patients were given triage 3 (moderate pain severity) 156 (78%), mean heart rate was 87.56 ± 17.97. One hundred three were diagnosed as nonspecific chest pain (51.5%), 27 (13.5%) were diagnosed as musculoskeletal chest pain. We found that 26 patients (13%) suffered from acute myocardial infarction (18 STEMI and 8 NSTEMI). Regarding the eighteen patients with STEMI 15 (83.3%) were males and 3 (16.7%) were females, 12 sent for PCI and 6 for thrombolysis. Admitted patients were 38 (19%) with different diagnoses.