Angin
5:43 AM
ANGIN
A common
chief complaint in Malaysia. The literal translation is “wind”. But getting a
diagnosis out of angin is totally
havoc. Everything can be angin from
dyspepsia, muscular pain, cardiac event, intestinal obstruction and fluid
overload.
Saya rasa angin la doctor.
Tengok urat urat saya ni timbul….buuuurppp (as he massages his veins). How
is it possible to get angin in veins
(urat)….is it AIR EMBOLISM? Why is he
not in respiratory
distress and collapsing?
Otot otot saya ni
masuk angin doctor! If silap, it’s
not angin in there but MASUK HANTU!
Saya rasa angin dekat
belah dada ni….bbbbuuuurrrppp. Says the man triaged to Red Zone for
Inferior Myocardial Infarction on inotropes. This must have been some HURRICANE
of a WIND!
Angin ni doctor,
tengok perut saya kembung ni. Really got angin inside him because of intestinal obstruction as he is unable
to buang
angin as well.
Then, there are the confusing terms in Bahasa Malaysia. Who
on earth decided to call stroke or CVA as angin
ahmar? Who is Ahmar and what has it got to do with angin? Meanwhile, angin
pasang is a bit less confusing as an inguinal hernia does look like there
are angin in it.
Despite all these non sense, the scariest aspect is to
wrongly diagnose a patient based on angin. Most elderly gentlemen will brush
off cardiac events (chest pains) as angin
which can be deadly. And sometimes when a doctor’s focus is at its lowest,
doctors tend to just follow the patient’s assumptions and treat as dyspepsia
without ruling out acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Most of the time it may be
just dyspepsia and some patients DO get irritated when doctors perform ECG’s
repeatedly, less than one hour apart. To junior doctors, please have a high
index of suspicion of ACS when patients have risk factors…do at least one ECG
just to make sure.
3 comments
1. Angin is synonymous with 'Sekok' in Pantai Timur.
ReplyDelete2. I believe that Angin Ahmar is a loanword-translation from Arabic 'Riih al-Ahmar' (Angin Merah).
The Malay language challenged ones would say 'anjin' for 'angin'. e.g. Perut saya banyak anjin(g)!
ReplyDeleteThe word sekok is being written regularly in patients BHTs..
ReplyDelete58 years old malay male came with complain of sekok for 1 day bla bla bla