Woman's heart attack symptoms differ from a man: Study

A new study has found that a woman's heart attack may have different underlying causes, symptoms and outcomes as compared to men.

Researchers from the American Heart Association have established that heart attacks caused by blockages in the main arteries can occur in both men and women.

However, the way the blockages form a blood clot may differ. Compared to men, women can have less severe blockages that do not require any stents.

Researchers also examined the differences in the treatment.

They found that women face greater complications from attempts to restore blood flow because their blood vessels tend to be smaller and have increased rates of risk factors, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

For symptoms differences, study showed that while the most common heart attack symptoms are chest pain or discomfort for both sexes, women are more likely to have atypical symptoms such as shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, and back or jaw pain.

The research also pointed out racial differences.

Compared to white women, black women have a higher incidence of heart attacks in all age categories and young black women have higher in-hospital death rates.

Black and Hispanic women tend to have more heart- related risk factors such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure at the time of their heart attack compared to non-Hispanic white women.

The study is published in the journal Circulation.