Acute heart symptoms differ between the sexes – but there is overlap
Doctors 'need to dispel' the image of sweaty, nauseous patients with chest pain, cardiologist says
Women with acute coronary syndrome are more than twice as likely to present with pain between the shoulder blades than men, a study finds.
And they are less likely than men to present with chest pain and diaphoresis, although there is considerable overlap in symptoms between the sexes.
In a systematic review and meta-analysis of 27 studies with more than 1.2 million participants, Dutch researchers compared the sex-specific pooled prevalences for symptoms of acute coronary syndromes (ACS), including unstable angina and acute MI.
Most studies contained more men than women, and female participants were older and often had more comorbidities, such as diabetes and hypertension, at presentation.
