Help with clinical apps homework!!!

[hot_txlatina]

Hi I need some help with some of th equestions on my clinical applications homewrok its for extra credit.. heres some of the questions.. Ive tried to look it up on the internet withought success.

What are the cardiac and non-cardiac differential diagnosis of chest pain?

I think i know some.. like ecg..??????????

Whats the most common cause of death in the first 48 hours after an AMI?

thanx in advance for ur help!!!!!!!:wink2:

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

A differential diagnosis is a list of the possible conditions associated with a certain symptom. An ECG is a diagnostic test/tool, but not a differential diagnosis. If you've ever had bad indigestion, you already know one of the major non-cardiac differential diagnoses for chest pain.

With MI, the muscle tissue wears out slowly, so within 48 hours you don't usually have time for things like heart failure to set in. Your danger in the first 48 hours is more that the heart's electricity will get messed up. I bet you can get it from there...

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

what you are being asked in the first question is what medical conditions have chest pain as a symptom? some will be cardiac; some will be others. chest pain is a symptom of many medical conditions. because of the seriousness of heart attack and death, the cardiac cause of chest pain is usually investigated first. once that is ruled out, eliminated as a cause, a physician will start to look at other possible reasons for the chest pain. the definition of differential diagnosis is distinguishing between two or more diseases with similar symptoms (in this case, chest pain).

here is a link to the family practice notebook page on chest pain:

http://www.fpnotebook.com/cv292.htm and

http://www.fpnotebook.com/cv30.htm

you will find listings of other medical conditions that contribute to chest pain that include cardiac and other factors, such as muscle, bone, renal and lungs.

here are links to information where you can find statistics about heart attack related deaths and heart attacks:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/heartattack.html