Signs of ischemia of the heart in women

It is necessary to know the signs of coronary heart disease in women, since this pathology is diagnosed in 20% of the fair half.

Most women are convinced that diseases of this nature are exclusively “male” deviations. Such incorrect conclusions keep patients from preventive examinations aimed at studying the cardiovascular system. In many patients, the disease is detected at a serious stage, when it requires complex treatment. And the first symptoms of coronary heart disease (fatigue, shortness of breath, sleep disturbance, mood swings) are taken as the onset of menopause.

What is the specificity of cardiac ischemia in women

The disease is characterized by clogging of coronary arteries with atherosclerotic plaques, which provokes coronary heart failure and an imbalance between the amount of oxygen supplied and required for the normal functioning of the myocardium.

There is a common myth that women are not susceptible to this disease. This is explained by the fact that estrogen (female hormone) protects the body from this pathology. In fact, coronary heart disease is also diagnosed in women, but much later: after 50 years, when pathologies in the vascular walls begin to develop, the blood supply to the heart is disrupted. The female body is undergoing hormonal changes, the hormones that protect her body are no longer produced, and she becomes vulnerable.

Diagnosis is complicated by the uncertainty of some of the symptoms of the disease. Their severity depends on the clinical form of the pathology, and some of them are characteristic only for women, which does not always make it possible to correctly explain the pathogenesis.

Patients with this diagnosis differ:

• increased anxiety;
• nervousness;
• hysteria.

These symptoms influence the diagnosis and are often explained as pre-menopausal syndrome.

Statistics confirm that women are much more likely to see a doctor because of chest discomfort, but only a small number of them have an ECG at rest and exercise. About 38% of women die from undiagnosed coronary disease, and half of them did not identify any alarming symptoms before death.

Characteristic symptoms for different clinical forms of ischemia

Symptoms can be classified depending on the clinical form of the pathology:

• stable angina is characterized by pain in the chest, which is expressed by seizures. It manifests itself after physical activity, emotional or nervous tension. The attack lasts 10-15 minutes. Very often, the pain does not bother the patients much, after the specified time it disappears and the patients, unaware of the presence of the disease, do not dare to undergo a heart examination;
• unstable angina is characterized by shortness of breath at rest or sleep;
• acute myocardial infarction. This is a prolonged ischemia of the heart, in which necrosis of the cardiac muscle tissue is formed. The pain in this case is defined as strong and burning, it does not go away and is removed only with strong nitroglycerin preparations. Additionally, symptoms such as increasing shortness of breath, loss of consciousness, chest pain that radiates to the left arm appear;
• sudden coronary death with successful hospitalization and resuscitation or fatal outcome. The main symptom is chest pain, clouding of consciousness, fainting, cardiac arrest;
• cardiosclerosis develops after myocardial infarction. It is characterized by arrhythmia, swelling, shortness of breath.

A common clinical form of ischemia in women is atypical angina. But it is often not accompanied by pain, which significantly delays the diagnosis.

Without pain, the following symptoms appear:

• dyspnea;
• labored breathing;
• sudden weakness or fatigue;
• pale skin, trembling, cold sweat.

These signs are not typical for coronary heart disease, women rarely know about their origin, explaining this by fatigue, menopause, and stress. When the diagnosis is confirmed, the pathology already requires serious treatment.

For example, during a heart test after physical activity, there is no abnormality, pain or discomfort that is usually recorded in men. In women, these signs may appear during psycho-emotional stress, stress, fatigue or at rest and do not disturb after physical activity. Such tests are often uninformative and make it difficult to make a diagnosis.

Many of the symptoms appear in women over 65 years of age. From the onset of menopause until this age, coronary artery disease may be asymptomatic. Some minor signs (fatigue, shortness of breath, lethargy) are mistaken for menopausal syndrome.

Recently, this disease is also diagnosed in women whose menstrual function is not impaired. In such cases, a diagnosis of "premature coronary heart disease" is established.

Features of the course of coronary heart disease in women

Ischemic heart disease in women has a number of features that differ from the signs of a similar pathology in men:

• factors that aggravate the course of the disease (smoking, overweight, diabetes, alcohol abuse) affect women more aggressively than men. They increase the symptoms of the disease;
• during angina attacks, many women do not feel pain, which complicates the diagnosis of the disease at an early stage;
• angina attacks in women are often intense, not amenable to removal with nitroglycerin preparations;
• IHD in women is often accompanied by depression.

The more typical pain symptoms and angina pectoris, the higher the chance of timely diagnosis and initiation of therapy. The severity of symptoms also depends on the presence of additional factors that complicate the course of the disease. Some of them affect the female body more detrimentally than the male. For example, a woman with diabetes has the same risk of coronary disease as a man without diabetes. Some specific factors are characteristic only for women: the consequences of taking hormonal contraceptives, menopause.

Mental symptoms

Coronary heart disease in women in most cases is superimposed on the onset of menopause, which is characterized by some mental characteristics.

Both conditions can cause the following symptoms in a woman:

• increased emotionality;
• depression;
• mental vulnerability;
• attacks of panic causeless fear;
• apathy.

This is due to the fact that several factors overlap each other:

• symptoms of heart disease;
• manifestations of climacteric syndrome;
• age characteristics.

Women begin to worry about their age, cessation of reproductive function, appearance, health. This causes constant stress and emotional tension, which negatively affects the state of the heart. During his examination, the mental characteristics of the woman's condition should also be taken into account, since they are also signs of coronary heart disease.

According to foreign studies in the field of medicine, about 82% of coronary complications could have been avoided if standard recommendations for lifestyle correction were followed:

• abstinence from smoking and alcohol abuse;
• nutrition normalization.

A serious problem remains the question of the diagnosis of the disease. Women should undergo a complete medical examination of the heart, note all the alarming symptoms and changes in the body, so that doctors can diagnose the disease in time and prevent it from developing into a more severe stage.

Educational work among women is of great importance: everyone is periodically checked by a gynecologist and mammologist, but they do not pay attention to the state of the cardiovascular system until it is too late. Women should be aware that the treatment of coronary heart disease in them requires more effort, and the prognosis is much worse than with a similar diagnosis in men. It is important to undergo preventive cardiac comprehensive studies, because 63% of women who die from coronary insufficiency had no warning symptoms before death.