How much do the Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction Know about Chest Pain, Thrombolytic Therapy, and Other Factors Affecting the Treatment Time in the Emergency Room?

Abstract

Background: Treatment time in the emergency room for acute myocardial infarction is very important and can be life-saving if one understands the importance of a patient’s chest pain. Objetice: The aim of this study is to evaluate how much patients entering the emergency room due to acute myocardial infection (AMI) know about chest pain and thrombolytic therapy. Materials and Methods: One hundred fifty patients (126 males,14 females) from three different institutes with complaints of chest pain were randomly chosen to participate in this study. The mean age of the patients was 55.4±11.2 years (71+33). Patients were asked to fill out a questionnaire consisting of 70 questions within the first seven days. All differences in categorical variables were computed using the χ2-test and Fisher Exact test. A two-tailed hypothesis was used in all statistical evaluations, and p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: It was observed that 17% of the patients came to the hospital within the first 30 minutes; 18.3% of them came to the hospital between 30 minutes and 1 hour; 27.5% of them came to the hospital between 1 hour and 3 hours; and 21.4% of them came to the hospital more than 6 hours after symptoms began. It was also observed that 68% of the patients were not aware of the AMI, and 96% of them had no prior knowledge of antithrombolytic therapy. Conclusion: Because the majority of the patients did not have enough information about AMI, a training program should be implemented to ensure that people to come to the hospital earlier.