The association between vital exhaustion, unstable angina, and future myocardial infarction

Abstract

The identification of an impending heart attack remains one of the major challenges of clinical and preventive cardiology. Several cardiologists, therefore, studied the symptoms and complaints most often experienced by coronary victims shortly before acute myocardial infarction (MI) or sudden cardiac death. It was found that the most commonly reported premonitory symptoms include chest pain, dyspnea, excess fatigue, lack of energy, or a feeling of general malaise. The prevalence estimates of excess fatigue prior to acute MI or cardiac death differ from study to study, and vary between 30% and 50%. This was equal to or larger than the prevalence of other prodromal symptoms [7, 8, 10, 11]. Most cardiologists would probably avoid interpretation of these feelings of “excess fatigue” or “lack of energy,” or are inclined to interpret these feelings as being related to angina pectoris, medication, or aging.