Women with coronary heart disease – making sense of their symptoms and their experiences from interacting with their general practitioners

Figures & data

Table 1. The patients.

	Age	Symptoms	CHD trajectory	Comorbidity and risk factors	Patient’s attribution of symptoms	Doctor’s diagnosis
Torill	53	Shortness of breath, chest pain	9 months since first symptoms	COPD, family with CHD, mother CHD at 40, brother at 39	Asthma, COPD, food intolerance, gastric reflux,	CHD
Eva	48	Fatigue, back-pain, shortness of breath, chest pain, radiating to arm and jaw	MI at age 36, PCI procedure at 39	CHD in family, hypercholesterolemia	Age-related, heart problem	CHD, confirmed by angiography last month
Berit	50	Back pain, shortness of breath, fatigue	2 years since first symptoms	Diabetes, family with CHD	Expressed worries for CHD	Muscle pain, conclusion no CHD symptoms
Anne	74	Stomach, chest-pain, jaw and nose, fatigue	10 years with angina	Hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, peripheral arterial disease, abdominal aortic aneurism, pyelitis	Pyelitis, CHD	CHD
Siw	70	Stomach and shoulder pain, reduced general condition, shivering	5 years since first symptoms, waited 1 year before consulting GP	Hypertension, family with CHD	Stress, workload	GP provided sick-leave, no info about diagnosis
Hansine	78	Chest pain	A prior MI not previously identified	Chest injury, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia last 40 years	Bruised rib	Bruised rib, nerves, psychosomatic
Sara	74	Chest pressure, palpitations, back pain	First symptoms 8 years ago, CHD diagnosis last month	High BP, gallstones, sphincter muscle	Gastric reflux, sphincter muscle, back pain	CHD but ECG negative, gastric reflux, sphincter muscle
Janne	47	Chest pain, radiation in arms, shortness of breath	3 years symptom, CHD diagnosis 2 years, MI 2 years ago not identified	Hypercholesterolemia, strong heredity for CHD in family, well known by GP	Gastric reflux, first MI perceived as reflux	CHD but ECG negative, gastric reflux → surgery, COPD
Liv	70	Chest pain, radiation in arm	Angina 12 years ago	Heredity for CHD	Heart problem	CHD