This week, Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Arasi Maran about heart attack symptoms in women. Dr. Maran is an Associate Professor of Medicine and an interventional cardiologist at MUSC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Heart attack signs can vary from person to person, and women may experience somewhat different symptoms than men. Doctor Arasi Maran is here to talk about symptoms of heart attack in women and in men. Doctor Maran is an Associate Professor of Medicine and she's an interventional cardiologist at MUSC. Doctor Maran, research shows that women continue to be undertreated for cardiovascular problems compared with men. Why is this? What's going on there?
Dr. Maran: You have highlighted a very important problem here. Women are undertreated and underdiagnosed because the symptoms of heart attacks vary from women to men, and they tend to think of it as some other cause and not necessarily their heart, and therefore seek treatment very late. Or even when they seek treatment, they don't get diagnosed with heart disease as frequently as men.
Conner: And how do symptoms that women might experience differ from what men commonly would experience with a heart attack?
Dr. Maran: Men have very classic symptoms of pain or pressure in the middle of the chest, which can radiate to the left shoulder or to the jaw, associated with sweating and difficulty breathing, which is brought on by physical activity which gets better at rest. But for women, it's kind of a whole host of symptoms. It can be just generalized fatigue. It can be more of a discomfort sensation rather than a pressure sensation. Sometimes they may have pain between the shoulder blades, or it is just overall fatigue and inability to complete work and tiredness. And women think, oh, I'm just tired, you know, I'm overworking and I'm tired. This is not related to my heart and tend to ignore it. And when they go and describe these symptoms to healthcare providers, they also don't think of the heart. And they think of other factors. They think of hormonal issues. They think of anxiety issues. Instead of thinking, oh, this could be a heart attack itself.
Conner: What would you like women to know in order to be proactive about some of these possible symptoms?
Dr. Maran: So if you have symptoms, irrespective of whether it fits the description, I have said right now, but if it comes on with physical activity, gets better with rest, comes on with physical activity repeatedly, then you do have to speak to your healthcare provider and specifically mention that these are all exertional symptoms. The moment when the doctors or healthcare providers hear the term it’s associated with physical activity, it kind of rings the bell that it may be related to the heart, and they would start investigating towards that.
Conner: What sort of evaluation or testing might be done then in response to these symptoms, to really get to the bottom of what's going on?
Dr. Maran: Yeah. Seeing their health care provider is the first step. And a good starting place is an exercise stress test that gives a lot of information. Cardiac CT scans are also available, which tells us what is going on with the anatomy of the blood vessels. Between these two tests and an echocardiogram, you have the full gamut of all that can be wrong within the heart.
Conner: Doctor Maran, thanks for talking with us about possible heart symptoms.
Dr. Maran: Thank you. Bobbi.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
