Myocardial infarction patients during the prodromal and acute phase: a comparison with patients with a diagnosis of 'noncardiac chest pain'.

Symptoms as reported by myocardial infarction (MI) patients are not easily distinguishable from the symptoms reported by patients with a diagnosis of 'noncardiac chest pain' (NCCP) (hyperventilation and/or functional complaints). MI patients and patients with a diagnosis of NCCP were questioned by means of a structured interview in order to determine what symptoms they had perceived during the prodromal and the acute phase. In the acute phase, more MI patients reported pain in the center of the chest than did NCCP patients. In both the acute and the prodromal phase NCCP patients reported the following atypical symptoms more often than the MI patients: palpitations, tingling of fingers, and 'numb feelings' in arms and legs. The duration of the prodromal pain attacks of the NCCP patients varied from a few minutes to several hours (median: more than half an hour), the MI patients reported a shorter duration of prodromal pain attacks (median: 10 min).