Pennsylvania Nurse, Front Page 2017 Issue 1 | Page 18

ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROME IN WOMEN By LoriAnn F. Pajalich, Wilkes University Mr. and Mrs. Jones arrived home from a dinner celebrating their 35 th wedding anniversary. Mrs. Jones, a 56-year-old female, begins to complain of nausea, back pain, cold sweats, and dizziness. At first, she was alarmed by the symptoms. However, she brushed the episode off as the “start of something.” Her husband reminded her that she has been com- plaining of not feeling well for the last few weeks. He suggests that they drive to the local emergency room. Every 43 seconds, someone in the United States has a myocardial infarction (or heart attack; Mozaffarian et al., 2014). This type of acute coronary syndrome occurs when a part of the heart muscle does not receive enough blood flow. The more time that passes without treatment to restore blood flow, the greater the damage to the heart muscle. Issue 1 2017 Pennsylvania Nurse 16