Heart Attack: Young Women may not Exhibit Signs of Chest Pain

A recent study looks at cardiovascular issues in women, specifically noting how not all women that have heart attacks will endure chest pain as a symptom before the health issues hits.

According to researchers at the Institute of McGill University Health Centre who gathered information from institutions across Canada including the University of British Columbia (UBC), they are the first to describe this phenomenon in young women.

"We need to move away from the image of an older man clutching his chest, when we think about acute coronary syndrome (ACS - the umbrella term referring to heart attacks and angina), says senior author of the study, Dr. Louise Pilote, via a press release, director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the MUHC and McGill University and professor of medicine at McGill University.

"The reality is that chest pain, age and gender are no longer the definers of a heart attack. Our study demonstrates that young people and women who come into the emergency without chest pain, but other telltale ACS symptoms such as weakness, shortness of breath and/or rapid heartbeats, are in crisis. We need to be able to recognize this and adapt to new standard assessments in previously unrecognized groups such as young women."

"Women less than 55 years old are more likely to have their ACS misdiagnosed in the ER than men, and they have higher risk of death," adds first author Dr. Nadia Khan, associate professor of Medicine, UBC, via the release. "The public and physicians need to be aware of this problem."

To study the issue, Doctors Pilote, Khan and colleagues analyzed information from more than 1,000 young patients who were hospitalized for ACS. The results showed that women were less likely to experience chest pain compared to men. The study also notes that less pain did not necessarily have less severe ACS.

"It is important to remember that chest pain is a main indicator of ACS, but not the only one," said Dr. Pilote, via the release, concluding that, "We need to remind ourselves that even without chest pain, something serious could still be happening."

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More information regarding the study can be found via JAMA Internal Medicine.