Objective: to know the mortality rate after six months in patients with unstable angina.
Material and methods: A representative sample of patients who were admitted at the emergency room with unstable angina diagnosis during a period of two years was selected. The presence of angina pectoris, heart attack and death was registered during their stay at the emergency room. A six-month follow-up took place to evaluate the frequency of angina, heart attack and death related to ischemic acute coronary syndrome, as well as the determination of the relative risk of factors associated to mortality.
Results: From the 110 admitted patients, we lost 4; 106 conformed the total of the cohort. There was a mortality rate within the emergency room of 1.8% and of 5.7% in six months. Heart attack was present in 6.6% and angina pectoris in 27.1% during their stay at the emergency room. None of the analyzed risk factors showed any relatively significant risk associated to mortality; the relative risk for age, sex, presence of angina during the stay at the emergency room, acute changes in EKG, history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, current smoking and ischemic cardiac disease, analyzed with the Mantel-Haenszel test, did not show any significant differences by the Mann-Whitney U among the values of the laboratory markers, arterial tension when admitted, pain intensity, evolution time of diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and previous ischemic heart disease.
Conclusions: A low frequency of angina, heart attack and mortality was found during their stay at the emergency room, as well as a low mortality rate in six months; none of the risk factors was significantly associated to death.