Heart attacks – know the warning signs of a silent killer
Nearly half of all heart attacks are ‘silent’ – minus the classic chest-clutching excruciating pain and breathlessness – but they’re potentially just as deadly, says new research
Does a heart attack always cause chest pains, shortness of breath and other warning signs?
The straight answer: No
The facts: Heart attacks often involve discomfort in the centre of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain. You may have pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach, as well as shortness of breath, nausea, lightheadedness and you may break out in a cold sweat.
But nearly half of all heart attacks may be “silent” and – like those that come with classic warning signs – silent heart attacks increase the risk of dying from heart disease and other causes, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.
“The outcome of a silent heart attack is as bad as a heart attack that is recognised while it is happening,” says Dr Elsayed Z. Soliman, study senior author and director of the epidemiological cardiology research centre at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre, Winston-Salem in North Carolina. “And because patients don’t know they have had a silent heart attack, they may not receive the treatment they need to prevent another one.”
Symptoms of silent heart attacks appear so mild that they are barely noticed, if at all. They are detected later, usually when patients undergo an electrocardiogram, better known as an ECG or EKG, to check their heart’s electrical activity, experts say.