One in three heart attack cases 'misdiagnosed'

Conclusion This valuable audit looks at nine years' worth of data from NHS hospitals, finding about a third of people with two forms of heart attack – STEMI and NSTEMI – are often wrongly diagnosed initially. These people are less likely to receive the guideline-indicated treatments they need – and the delay in receiving correct treatment could have a harmful effect. The study also highlights the factors associated with a wrong diagnosis, including being of an older age, having heart failure, and atypical findings for either diagnosis. Unexpectedly, gender was also associated with a wrong initial diagnosis for women. The study's findings are based on a very large database and mortality data came from the Office for National Statistics, so information on patient characteristics, presentation and deaths is likely to be fairly reliable. However, the data has a few limitations. As the researchers say, there was some missing information in some cases, such as timing of the blood test to check the heart enzymes. They also didn't have much detail on those who were given initial diagnoses of "other" chest pain. Additionally, the researchers excluded people who died in hospital because they were uncertain of the treatments they were given beforehand. In doing this they may, as they acknowledge, have underestimated the effects of changing diagnosis because the risk of death from a heart attack is highest in the early stages. Also, the database does not contain ...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medical practice Source Type: news