Teeth Grinding

rick blaine wrote:As you know, Accident and Emergency departments (A&E) are under a lot of pressure at the moment, and the staff may not have had time to explain things to you.

The current 'standard operating procedure' (SOP) for patients over 40 presenting with chest pain but who aren't in immediate distress is to park you in a bay where they can observe you, clip a quite-advanced 'pulse-ox' reader on to one of your fingers, and take a blood sample.

The pulse-ox reader is connected both to the monitor above your bed and to the 'front desk'/nurses' station. It shows heart rate, O2 saturation, and by means of very sensitive transducers, breathing pattern.

The blood test - which is very rapidly analysed - is looking for a substance called troponin. If it's there in any quantity, it suggests heart muscle damage.

The number they're focussing on is 14 units. If it's higher than 14 - say 24, or anything up to 100 - then SOP is to admit you for observation, and do the troponin test again six hours later.

If at the second testing the level of troponin is the same or higher, they assume cardiac involvement. (And if you had 'crashed' at any time during those six hours, well, the doctors and the crash team were there, less than 30 seconds away.)

If the level of troponin falls back to 14 units or less by the end of six hours, you can go home.

And if it was never above 14 in the first place, it's highly unlikely you had a heart attack.

As any third-year medical student will tell you, there are 20 possible explanations for chest pain.

As to taking your bp, unless you have signs and symptoms of very high bp, or signs and symptoms of very low bp, a busy A&E doctor or nurse might not take your blood pressure.

From your statement "they seemed to want me through as soon as possible" I'm deducing that you were not asked to wait the six hours - which suggests your troponin was 14 or under. Which in turn suggests that: it's very unlikely you had a heart attack.

Also, you ask "will this [software] work in the UK?" - I live in the UK, in Gloucestershire. I have Sleepyhead - I've used it for five years now - and it works just fine.