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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Women Do Have Different Heart Attack Symptoms
Maybe Because of Age
Older people and women less likely to have chest
pains
 Dec.
11, 2007 A new study confirms that women and men have somewhat
differing indications of a heart attack men are, for example, slightly
more likely to have check pains but there is also a difference for
older people. The elderly, like women, are more likely to have a heart
attack without chest pain. Maybe, the researchers say, there is a
connection, since women are generally older than men when they first
experience a heart attack.
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Chest pain is still the most common sign of a heart
attack for most women, although studies have shown that women are more
likely than men to have symptoms other than chest pain or discomfort
when experiencing a heart attack or other form of acute coronary
syndrome (ACS), according to an article "Symptom Presentation of Women
With Acute Coronary Syndromes - Myth vs. Reality" published online Dec.
10 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Researchers examined 35 years of research that
yielded 69 studies 69 studies and found that, depending on the size of
the study (which ranged from large trials to single centers and
interviews), between 30 percent and 37 percent of women did not have
chest discomfort during a heart attack.
In contrast, 17 percent to 27 percent of men did
not experience chest discomfort. Overall, the majority of women - and
men - in the reviewed studies had chest discomfort with heart attack
(two-thirds to three-quarters, depending on study size).
Study authors also found that older people are more
likely to have heart attack without chest discomfort.
However, because women are on average nearly a
decade older than men at the time of their initial heart attack, the
researchers call for more studies to determine the degree to which
gender independently influences heart attack symptoms.
They conclude that current research does not
indicate a need to differentiate heart attack symptoms in women from
those in men, and public health messages should continue to emphasize
chest pain or discomfort, shortness of breath, and other common signs of
heart attack.
Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of
death among U.S. women, and affects one in 10 women over the age of 18.
The authors also report that women are more likely
than men to experience other forms of cardiac chest pain syndromes, such
as unstable angina, and they appear to report a wider range of symptoms
associated with ACS.
For example, women are more likely to report pain
in the middle or upper back, neck, or jaw; shortness of breath; nausea
or vomiting; indigestion; loss of appetite; weakness or fatigue; cough;
dizziness; and palpitations.
Absence of chest discomfort is a strong predictor
for missed diagnosis and treatment delays. Noting that many studies
exclude patients who do not report chest pain, the researchers call for
additional research from well-designed studies to further investigate
gender differences in heart attack symptoms. This includes expanding
symptom definitions and greater standardization in data collection and
reporting of women's symptoms.
The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.
Resources:
● Act In Time To Heart Attack Signs is an NHLBI
education campaign that that urges physicians to educate their patients
about heart attack risk, warning signs, and survival. For information on
heart attack warning signs for both the public and health care
professionals,
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/actintime/haws/haws.htm.
● The Heart Truth, NHLBI's national awareness
campaign for women about heart disease, aims to spread the word that
heart disease is largely preventable. For midlife women, the most common
risk factors for heart disease in order of greatest prevalence include
overweight/obesity, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood
pressure. For more on The Heart Truth,
http://www.hearttruth.gov.
● For current recommendations for heart health,
see Your Guide to a Healthy Heart,
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/other/your_guide/healthyheart.htm.
NHLBI is part of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), the Federal Governments primary agency for biomedical and
behavioral research. NHLBI press releases and fact sheets, including
information on the Womens Health Initiative and on overweight and
obesity can be found online at
www.nhlbi.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) The
Nation's Medical Research Agency includes 27 Institutes and Centers
and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic,
clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the
causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For
more information about NIH and its programs, visit
www.nih.gov.
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