| Summary: | Introduction: The coronary heart disease (CHD) is the cause number one of death
in the occidental world and it is an important problem of public health with worldwide
significance. In turn, the angina pectoris is the clinical symptom of the acute coronary
syndrome (ACS).
Objective: To describe the perception, assessment and response to the presence of the
symptom angina pectoris in women who had ACS.
Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study carried out to convenience in 100 women
who were diagnosed and managed as ACS in a public hospital of the city of Cartagena
de Indias, Colombia. Of the medical record were taken the identity data and they were
contacted for a home visit, to deal with informed consent, to apply a socio demographic
data form and the tool about the experience of the symptom angina pectoris developed
by Céspedes, who based it, in the experience of the conceptual model of Marilyn Dodd.
The descriptive statistic was expressed in averages and percent data.
Results: 100 women with average age of 69 years old, belonging principally to mediumlow
and low socioeconomic strata who had previously presented ACS participated.
A third of them with incomplete primary education, 28% in civil union and half of
them included in contributive health regimen. The experience of the symptom angina
pectoris in women was 51% as typical symptom and 49% as atypical symptom. 64%
of women assessed the symptom as a cardiac problem and according to the severity,
38% considered it as sensation of death. In front of the presence of the pain, 41% of
women took house medicines, 36% ignored it and the other 35% breathed deeply. 76%
of women decided to go to an emergency center. Nine of each ten informed that the day
in which they presented angina pectoris as symptom of ACS, they delayed less than one
hour to arrive to the doctor´s office and less of one hour in being attended, since the
beginning of the symptom.
Conclusion: Half of the evaluated women perceived the symptom angina pectoris as
atypical symptom. Although an important number of them considered it as of cardiac
origin and a third initially ignored it. The assistance to the physician and the afforded
attention was glaringly high before of one hour since the beginning of the angina
pectoris. Rev.cienc.biomed. 2014;5(2):272-280.
KEYWORDS
Angina pectoris, Acute coronary syndrome, Chest pain
|
|---|
