Case Study

Kath Harris is a 65–year-old women who lives alone. She presented to the emergency department, complaining of chest pain for 2 hours. Kath was doing light cleaning around the house. Prior to the onset of her pain, she had taken three glyceryl trinitrate tablets, which had little effect on reducing her chest pain. Following her admission, she was diagnosed with an acute myocardial infarction.
Mrs. Harris has a history of unstable angina, hypertension and diabetes mellitus type 2. She is a cigarette smoker, smoking two packets of cigarettes a day, for approximately 40 years. A recent history of indigestion suggests an active peptic ulcer. She is also overweight (her body mass index is 32). She has had a history of head trauma due to an incident a few months ago, where she fell down a set of stairs. On arrival at the emergency department, Mrs. Harris’ skin was pale, and her peripheries were cool. Her observations and pathology results were as follows: 

 1.Outline the statistics (incidence and prevalence) of myocardial infarction in Australia. 2.Identify the clinical manifestations of an acute myocardial infarction that Mrs. Harris experienced.  Explain the physiological rationale for each of these manifestation. How would you manage Mrs. Harris’ care? 3.Identify Mrs. Harris’ four risk factors and develop a multifaceted plan that could modify these risk factors. 4.Identify issues /problems associated with thrombolytic/ fibrinolytic therapy from the case study.