Chest pain during admission in a reference cardiac emergency unit

Abstract

This study aimed to verify the presence of chest pain in a reference emergency cardiac unit of Recife, PE, Brazil. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive-exploratory study, with a quantitative approach. Between December 2012 and February 2013, data from 39 patients admitted to the unit with chest pain were collected. For comparison between the averages, the Mann-Whitney test was used and the Pearson correlation was used to verify the association between numerical variables and pain scores and time between symptoms’ onset and attendance (delta t). The main presentations were retrosternal chest pain isolated (51.3%) and combined with radiation (33.3%). The average scores reported for pain was 5.15±1.63 and the delta t of the sample was 14.95±8:48h. The delay to arrive at the reference unit harms the diagnosis and the possibility of initiating reperfusion therapy in pre-hospital care should be considered.