Khaznadar AAJ* and Salh RWS
Background: Acute coronary syndrome has been introduced as a major cause of mortality particularly in the elderly. ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction are two common types of acute coronary syndromes, which have been reported to be associated with some risk factors including age, obesity, hypertension and diabetes that can be utilized to predict and diagnose such disease.
Objectives: The present study was carried out in order to examine the effect of age on risk factors and clinical symptoms of acute coronary syndromes.
Materials and Methods: The present prospective study was carried out on 125 patients with acute coronary syndromes who were admitted at Coronary Care Unit in Sulaimani, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Their acute coronary syndromes were diagnosed through clinical presentations, electrocardiography (ECG), and troponin test. Required data were collected from the patients at their admission using a researcher-based checklist, face-to-face interviews, and reference to their medical records. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20.
Results: The results indicated that the males were the dominant group. Moreover, the age group 45-65 had the highest rate of prevalence of acute coronary syndromes. It was also observed that the most frequent risk factors for acute coronary syndromes were respectively hypertension (54.4%), dyslipidemia (52%), smoking (42.4%), and diabetes mellitus (38.4%). Typical chest pain was found to be the most frequent clinical presentation (88%). The results also demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the age groups in terms of the effect of age on typical and atypical symptoms. However, age had no significant effect on types of acute coronary syndromes. Also, age and typical/atypical symptoms had no significant effect on types of acute coronary syndromes. Finally, family history, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, smoking, physical inactivity, and dyslipidemia had no effect on types of acute coronary syndromes in the studied age groups.
Conclusion: Age can be a predictive factor for acute coronary syndromes, but the studied risk factors (i.e., family history, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, smoking, physical inactivity, and dyslipidemia) cannot be used as factors to predict acute coronary syndromes.
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