Heart attack: new guidelines for recognising symptoms
Heart attack, new guidelines published in the USA: in Italy, cardiovascular diseases are still the leading cause of death, accounting for 34.8% of all deaths
As far as acute myocardial infarction is concerned, however, the data indicate a positive reduction in hospitalisations, an improvement that is associated with the widespread dissemination of correct information in the field of prevention and a faster diagnosis and assessment of the patient’s clinical situation.
Knowing how to recognise the symptoms of a myocardial infarction, both on the part of the patient who goes to the emergency room and on the part of the specialists who take care of him or her, is fundamental for intervening promptly and saving lives.
But how do you recognise the symptoms of a heart attack?
In October 2021, the prestigious journal Circulation published the new guidelines indicated by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology on the symptoms of myocardial infarction.
Often, the symptom that is automatically associated with a heart attack is chest pain, but there are other signs that it is essential to recognise and which may be different for men and women.
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Heart attack: symptoms not to be underestimated
The guidelines issued by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology emphasise the importance of knowing how to properly assess chest pain.
This is a typically cardiac symptom, but it is its characteristics and association with other symptoms that indicate whether the patient is actually suffering from a heart attack or whether the origin of the discomfort is of a different nature.
What the guidelines stress, therefore, is the importance of assessing the symptoms associated with chest pain.
These are manifestations such as shortness of breath, radiating pain to the arms, shoulders and jugular, and other symptoms that are sometimes not considered to be cardiac: nausea, for example. In short, these are all aspects that a specialist must consider when assessing a patient complaining of chest pain.
Symptoms of heart attack in women
A heart attack also presents itself with different symptoms depending on the gender.
When talking about the female sex, special attention should be paid to ‘atypical’ symptoms, compared to those one might imagine when thinking about an acute cardiovascular problem, such as chest pain related to breathlessness.
Women should also consider pain that is not confined to the centre of the chest, but involves the shoulders and back, or reduced tolerance to exertion, exercise.
Nausea is another important element which, assessed in a given clinical context, may lead to the diagnosis of an acute cardiological disorder.
Symptoms of heart attack in men
This should not lead us to underestimate the ‘typical’ symptoms, because they can help us to recognise an acute heart attack at an early stage, especially in men.
Men usually present with symptoms such as oppressive pain in the centre of the chest lasting more than 10-15 minutes, associated with shortness of breath.
If you experience these symptoms, you should seek immediate help and not wait, because only timely treatment can save your life.
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The importance of timely intervention
Early intervention really does save lives: indeed, data show that among adults who go to the emergency room for chest pain, only 5% are not actually affected by an acute coronary syndrome.
The guidelines expressed in Circulation, therefore, by indicating the correlation between chest pain and other manifestations, stress the need to consider different symptoms as possible alarm bells of a heart attack.
Indeed, the risk of attributing another cause to chest pain associated with other symptoms is very high and may prevent prompt intervention to save the patient’s life.
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