Background and Objective: Ischemic heart diseases (IHD) are caused by accumulation of fatty plaques in the heart blood vessels.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) such as acute coronary syndrome (ACS) include 46% of deaths in our country. Some of the ACS risk factors are smoking, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Studies have shown that symptoms of ACS are different in men and women. We have a higher mortality rate for cardiovascular disease in women than men, which can be due to the presence of atypical symptoms in women. In this study we aim to compared the clinical symptoms of ACS in women and men admitted to the heart ward of the Islamic Azad University hospitals.Materials and Method:This descriptive analytical study was done on 200 patients hospitalized in the cardiac ward of hospitals of Islamic Azad University of Mashhad in 2013 with ACS diagnosis. Also patients with gastritis were treated, history of severe chest trauma, history of neck arthritis were excluded. The check list of this study consisted of three parts. The first part was information on pain and clinical symptoms. The second part includes demographic information and the third part, history of medicine and risk factors. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 20. The significant level of the test was considered to be 0.05.Findings:Population of our study includes 100 (50%) women and 100 (50%) men. The average age is 63/67± 6/84 years for men and 62/86± 6/92 years for women (p> 0/05). Women more than men also suffer from pain in the left arm and shoulder, epigastric pain and neck pain(p<0/05). Regarding to the quality of pain, women described pain heavily and aggravated, and men described it as squeezing (p<0/05). The time and length of chest pain in women was more than men (p> 0/05). The prevalence of hypertension, obesity and diabetes were higher in women While the prevalence of smoking was higher in men (p<0/05). Prevalence of typical chest pain in women was less than men (52 % vs. 79 %) (p < 005). In checking along symptoms the prevalence of palpitations, cold sweats, dizziness, nausea, vomiting in digestion and fatigue in women was higher than men, whereas the prevalence of dyspnea was higher in men (p<0/05).Conclusion:We found that women more than men are with atypical symptoms of ACS that shows the importance of paying more attention to women in dealing with these symptoms, because it can reduce efficacy of appropriate treatment for women than men.