Heart attacks are usually caused by clogged arteries that prevent blood flow to the heart. It’s called atherothrombosis, and it’s a killer.
A new study from the Mayo Clinic, however, found that while the majority of heart attacks can be blamed on atherothrombosis, there’s a surprising amount that are misdiagnosed as atherothrombosis. They are actually caused by an entirely different condition called SCAD.
Researchers who published their findings in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology analyzed 15 years of heart attack data from Olmsted County, Minnesota, examining 1,474 cases in individuals aged 65 and under.
They found that atherothrombosis was exactly the killer they thought it was, clocking in as the primary cause in 75 percent of heart attacks in men. No shocker there. It was a very different story for women, however. In women, only 47 percent were caused by atherothrombosis.
Doctors Say an Underdiagnosed Condition Could Be Fueling Heart Attacks in Women
So, what’s causing the other 53 percent? Spontaneous coronary artery dissections, or SCAD. That’s when blood sneaks into tears in artery walls. Women are nearly six times more likely to suffer from them than men.
There were also embolisms and stress-related triggers like anemia, all of which tend to get misdiagnosed or ignored entirely.
When doctors misidentify the root cause, they might treat the wrong thing. Cardiologists Claire Raphael and Rajiv Gulati, the study’s first author and senior author, respectively, say it’s time for doctors to expand their understanding of what can cause a heart attack.
They argue that doctors should move away from the traditional, one-size-fits-all approach. In this case, clogged arteries could lead to treatments that fail and exacerbate the situation further.
The gender gap in diagnosis might be tied to biological differences in symptoms, or the fact that women often don’t seek help fast enough. It’s all indicative of a system that isn’t designed with women in mind.
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