Hidden Heart Disease In Women

By Einav Keet

For the 8 million American women who suffer from heart disease, symptoms may be harder to detect than they are in men, according to research conducted by the National Institutes of Health. The study found that women are more likely to have an even coating of plaque in their smaller arteries, a condition known as coronary microvascular disease, rather than the larger and more detectable clots common in men. As a result, angiographies, used by doctors to monitor blood flow through the arteries, can fail to spot heart disease in women. Half of all women who have chest pains and are cleared by an angiogram have this more uniform type of arterial build-up. This gender discrepancy may be the reason why fewer women receive treatment for the disease and why their survival rates are lower, with nearly half a million women lost to heart disease each year. Women may also suffer different symptoms than men. Instead of pain in the left arm, women may feel fatigue along with the more common symptoms, such as shortness of breath and chest pain.

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