Women With Hard To Diagnose Chest Pain Symptoms At Higher Risk For Cardiovascular Events

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE: May 12, 2009

EXCERPT:  "Many physicians are presented with the following scenario: a woman comes into the office complaining of chest pain, undergoes a stress test to evaluate the chest pain, and the stress test results suggest coronary artery disease, a condition in which plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries. She is then referred for an angiogram to look at the coronary arteries and despite her symptoms and the abnormal stress test, she is told that the tests didn't find anything of clinical significance and is sent home without treatment. However, a new study may change this by offering greater insight into the causes behind chest pain in women and how it manifests differently in women than it does in men. The study ... shows that women with chest pain but without coronary artery disease are at an elevated risk for cardiovascular events such as heart attack or stroke."  more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Gulati M, Cooper-DeHoff RM, McClure C, Johnson BD, Shaw LJ, Handberg EM, Zineh I, Kelsey SF, Arnsdorf MF, Black HR, Pepine CJ, Merz CN. Adverse cardiovascular outcomes in women with nonobstructive coronary artery disease: a report from the Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation Study and the St James Women Take Heart Project. Arch Intern 2009 May 11;169(9):843-50.