BACKGROUND: Acute coronary syndrome characterizes the spectrum of myocardial ischemia states, which include non-ST elevated myocardial infarction (MI), and angina.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study is to determine the effectiveness of foot massage on selected physiological parameters among patients with acute coronary syndrome.
METHODS: A quasi- experimental study was conducted in Karbala center for cardiac diseases and surgery from December 25th, 2023, to May 7th, 2024. A nonprobability purposive sampling consisted of 60 patients with acute coronary syndrome in the intervention group were instructed to performed four-step foot massage similarly 5 min for each foot. While patients in the control group just received routine medical treatment. The physiological parameters were checked in the two groups before, after 5 min, and 10 min after the foot massage. The study instrument consisted of two main parts: part one included patient's socio demographics and clinical data, and the second part was used to assess the physiological parameters. Statistical tests were conducted using the software SPSS, version 24, with a level of significance of 5 % (p value <0.05).
RESULTS: that are a significant statistical differences between the mean of the selected physiological parameters readings for the study group except reading of pulse pressure, while there is no significant statistical difference between the mean of the readings of the selected physiological parameters for the control group except the reading of heart rate.
CONCLUSION: The study found that the foot massage is effective for improving the blood pressure, heart rate, mean arterial pressure.
* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.