26 hours ago A patient reports severe chest pain radiating to the neck and arms. Assessment findings include a scratching, grating, and high-pitched sound at the lower sternal border of the chest. The nurse recognizes the presence of the hallmark finding of what condition? Subacute nodules Acute pericarditis Rheumatic endocarditis Chronic rheumatic carditis >> Go To The Portal
This case shows that clinicians must always evaluate each complaint of chest pain as if it were new. Additionally, patients who complain of chest pain won't always have the expected signs and symptoms.
You must be able to quickly assess for any primary life-threatening conditions, and also evaluate for any secondary underlying cause that could have brought on the initial chest pain. Often, resolving the aggravating cause will decrease the acuity of the initial complaint or condition.
Using follow-up questions, such as asking the patient to point to the area of pain, and repeating what the patient said can be very helpful in making sure the patient is understood. Explore the characteristics of the chest pain first.
The optimal integration of functional testing into a chest pain assessment pathway relies on appreciating both the test and the characteristics of the patients likely to be referred.
The most common presenting symptom of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is dyspnea. Patients also can develop syncope, palpitations, angina, orthopnea, paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, dizziness, congestive heart failure, and sudden cardiac death.
The most common signs of pericarditis include chest pain, fever, weakness and tiredness, coughing, trouble breathing, pain when swallowing, and palpitations (irregular heartbeats). If pericarditis is suspected, the healthcare provider will listen to your heart very carefully.
Other tests used to diagnose pericarditis may include:Electrocardiogram (ECG). An electrocardiogram is a quick and painless test that records the electrical signals in the heart. ... Chest X-ray. ... Echocardiogram. ... Cardiac computerized tomography (CT) scan. ... Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
In Infective endocarditis, clumps of infection called vegetation invade the lining of the heart and valves causing inflammation that disrupts normal function. Echocardiography is used to visualize this.
An ECG can show inflammation, as well as localize the area of the heart that is inflamed. In the setting of heart muscle inflammation, an ECG commonly shows extra beats (extrasystole) and/or an accelerated heartbeat.
The electrocardiogram (ECG) is very useful in the diagnosis of acute pericarditis. Characteristic manifestations of acute pericarditis on ECG most commonly include diffuse ST-segment elevation. However, other conditions may have ECG features similar to those of acute pericarditis.
Conclusion: CT findings, while not sensitive for pericarditis, are diagnostic, with few false-positives. Radiologists should be attentive to pericardial thickening or enhancement on CT studies done for chest pain, as they may be able to suggest pericarditis as an alternative diagnosis for the chest pain.
An echocardiogram checks how your heart's chambers and valves are pumping blood through your heart. An echocardiogram uses electrodes to check your heart rhythm and ultrasound technology to see how blood moves through your heart.
Although cardiac MRI appears to be useful in detecting pericardial inflammation, the imaging studies have not had direct confirmation with histologic data. Since pericarditis is usually not associated with mortality, autopsy correlation with pre-mortem MRI imaging is non-existent.
Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is often the first choice for testing. However, its sensitivity is only about 70% for detecting vegetations on native valves and 50% for detecting vegetations on prosthetic valves.
Echocardiogram. An echocardiogram uses sound waves to produce images of your heart while it's beating. This test shows how your heart's chambers and valves are pumping blood through your heart. Your doctor may use two different types of echocardiograms to help diagnose endocarditis.
How is endocarditis diagnosed?Blood test. If your doctor suspects you have endocarditis, a blood culture test will be ordered to confirm whether bacteria, fungi, or other microorganisms are causing it. ... Transthoracic echocardiogram. ... Transesophageal echocardiogram. ... Electrocardiogram. ... Chest X-ray.
Pulmonary embolization. Vegetations are the primary lesions of infective endocarditis (IE) that stick to the endocardium of the heart. Vegetations occurring in the right side of the heart could dislodge and then occlude the pulmonary artery, causing pulmonary embolism.
ACE inhibitors reduce arterial pressure and afterload in patients with heart failure by causing vasodilation. As a vasodilator, morphine decreases cardiac workload by lowering myocardial O 2 consumption, reducing contractility, and decreasing BP and HR.
The presence of vegetation on heart valves cannot be detected by chest x-ray, cardiac catheterization, or electrocardiography; however, a chest x-ray can help to identify gross cardiac changes, blood vessels can be examined by cardiac catheterization, and an electrocardiogram can identify cardiac rhythm changes.
When your patient has chest pain, you'll need to use your assessment skills to determine whether the patient is having an acute MI or some other life-threatening illness. By knowing the signs and symptoms of the various causes for chest pain, you can quickly assess and determine whether the patient has a life-threatening condition and provide appropriate and possibly lifesaving care.
Referred pain usually occurs because both the nerves (afferent fibers) of the viscera and the somatic region enter the spinal cord at the same level. 6 Thus, the patient who has both visceral and somatic pain could have a sharper and more localized sensation of the pain in the chest region.
The decreased blood flow through an occluded or partially occluded coronary artery resulting in the sensation of heaviness or crushing-type feeling in the chest is an example of visceral pain. Somatic pain, on the other hand, is described as sharp, piercing, and specific to a local area.
Nociceptive pain arises from specific pain receptors and is classified as somatic or visceral in nature. Visceral pain originates from specific internal organs, such as the heart, liver, bowels, or bladder. The pain receptors in the viscera react to stretch, inflammation, and ischemia.
3–5 Pain in the chest region is mostly induced by mechanical, chemical, or thermal means and is considered to be nociceptive (see Mechanism of acute pain ).
Although heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women, death from cardiac causes has significantly decreased since 1980 in both sexes. 2 To maintain this downward trend in mortality, clinicians must continue to diagnose, manage, and treat chest pain appropriately.
Although some physical findings are common for the various causes of chest pain, a patient with chest pain may not have all of these signs, and some patients may not have any signs at all (see Chest pain physical assessment clues ).