Pain in the chest is the main sign of a heart attack, but 20% of women under 55 do not have it. An absence of symptoms that presents risks.
The pain in the chest radiating down the arm… Everyone knows this typical sign of a heart attack. Pain that can save life and cause the person to immediately call 15. But a myocardial infarction does not always prevent.
A team of Canadian researchers has just published a study in Jama internal medicine which shows that 20% of women under the age of 55 struck by a heart attack do not experience this chest pain. This absence of symptoms is indeed more marked in young women than in older men.
In addition, these same young women also often had fewer symptoms suggestive of acute coronary syndrome, such as a feeling of weakness, difficulty breathing and / or rapid heartbeat.
This difference between men and women in terms of symptoms, however, remains unexplained. Overall, this study carried out on a thousand patients shows that on average, all sexes combined, 80% of people feel this pain in the chest.
In addition, the authors of this study insist on one point: the absence of chest pain does not mean that the heart attack is less violent. The rate of rise in troponins or even coronary artery stenosis, which are indicators of the severity of the infarction, did not differ in these patients.
These results once again show that we must be wary of preconceived ideas: heart attack victims are not only mature men who arrive at the emergency room holding their breasts. “We must be able to recognize these clues and adapt to a new standard of assessment for these groups not yet recognized as young women,” says Louise Pilote, main author of this work. It is important to remember that chest pain is one of the main indicators of acute coronary syndrome, but it is not the only one. ” These heart attacks that do not prevent are obviously underdiagnosed and the risk of death is greater.
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