Patients admitted to the emergency department with acute chest pain--is there a difference between patients in an urban and a rural area?

The aim of this study was to compare the characteristics and outcome for patients coming to the emergency department with acute chest pain in a city university hospital, representing an urban area, and a county hospital, representing a rural area. This was a retrospective survey of all chest pain patients at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, covering an area with 706 inhabitants/km2, and at Uddevalla County Hospital, Uddevalla, covering an area with 34 inhabitants/km2, over a period of 6 months. In all 2,297 patients were registered at Sahlgrenska University Hospital and 1062 at Uddevalla Hospital (per 100,000 inhabitants and year 1,502 and 1,342 patients, respectively). The patients in the urban area were more frequently sent home from the emergency department than in the rural area (30% versus 23%; p < 0.0001). Patients in the urban area had a lower prevalence of previous cardiovascular diseases. An obvious acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or a strong suspicion of AMI at initial evaluation was less frequent in the urban area whereas no suspicion of AMI was twice as common (46% versus 24%; p < 0.0001). Furthermore, there was a difference in the use of medications; various cardiovascular drugs were more frequently used in the rural area. Despite these differences at baseline the 30-day mortality was similar (3.5% in the urban area and 3.6% in the rural area; NS), as well as the 2-year mortality (14.0% and 12.7%, respectively; NS). It is concluded that the number of patients admitted to the emergency department with acute chest pain/100,000 was slightly higher in the urban than in the rural area. Patients in the urban area differed from those in the rural area having a lower prevalence of previous cardiovascular diseases, a lower initial suspicion of AMI, they were less frequently hospitalized and less frequently prescribed various cardiovascular drugs. Mortality did not differ between the two cohorts.