Thursday, October 8, 2009

Knowledgeable patients ignore chest pain (USA)

"When it comes to seeking treatment for chest pain, education doesn't always mean people do the right thing. In a new study, heart patients who received counseling about heart attack symptoms and when to get treatment were no more likely to get immediate care than those who had not received counseling. This is disappointing because patients who receive care within 90 minutes after the onset of heart attack symptoms fare much better. The study, published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, included 3,522 patients with documented heart disease. Patients had a mean age of 67 years; two-thirds were men. About half of the patients received counseling. During the next two years, 565 of the study participants were admitted to the hospital with chest pain symptoms. Some were admitted more than once. Even after learning the value of getting to the hospital quickly and using the emergency medical system (EMS), the group that received counseling was not significantly more likely to do these things than the comparison group that didn't get counseling" - WebMD

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