Acute prevention of a heart attack : Early identification of prodromal symptoms as the Rosetta Stone in decoding the heart attack problem.

ABSTRACT

Chest discomfort before severe chest pain represents a marker of clinical ischemia and indicates live myocardium in jeopardy and often precedes cardiac arrest or acute myocardial infarction (MI). The intermittent or "stuttering" symptoms that precede MI are referred to as "prodromal symptoms." These symptoms have been shown to correlate with cyclic ST changes and repeated episodes of spontaneous reperfusion and occlusion, occurring during a period of hours or days before the acute ischemia proceeds to death or heart damage. These symptoms of premonitory angina have been associated with improved outcomes due to ischemic pre-conditioning or opening of collateral vascular channels around the area of ischemia. Acute prevention of an MI through recognition of prodromal symptoms represents an opportunity to significantly reduce heart attack deaths. The Early Heart Attack Care (EHAC) program puts emphasis on prodromal symptom recognition and allows for a shift in time backward to prevent the ischemic process from proceeding to MI. This strategy has been shown to detect the 15% of patients with ischemia in the low-probability group and to reduce inappropriate admissions to hospital as well as to reduce the number of patients with missed MI being sent home from the emergency department.