The initial manifestations of acute myocardinal infarction

A review of 132 consecutive patients 65 years of age and older who had a myocardial infarction showed that two-thirds of them experienced pain at onset. Pain was the only symptom leading to bedside diagnosis in one-fourth of the patients. Pain at onset combined with sudden or increased dyspnea was present in one-fifth of the patients and pain associated with other symptoms in one-sixth. Dyspnea unaccompanied by pain heralded onset of infarction in one-fifth of the patients, and in almost 7 percent, onset was marked only by other symptoms. Cerebral symptoms dominated onset in one-tenth of the patients. Preexisting coronary heart disease, hypertension, or diabetes was not predictive of painless infarction. To avoid pitfalls and facilitate bedside diagnosis of infarction, physicians should be aware of the different clinical presentations of painless infarction in the aged, which occurred in over one-third of the patients in this cohort. They also should suspect the possibility of myocardial infarction in any patient in whom symptoms are not clear, even when they are mild and unobtrusive. Questioning of the elderly patient, his family, or others around him as early as possible after the onset of an acute attack is likely to elicit a history of pain, which may lead to the correct diagnosis.