|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Suzanne Rostler
NEW YORK, Mar 02 (Reuters Health) - Chest pain is less likely to be a sign of serious heart disease in women who have a history of anxiety disorders compared with other women with chest pain, researchers report.
Symptoms of chest pain are known to be a less reliable sign of advanced heart disease in women than in men. But in any case, doctors may order an angiogram--a procedure in which dye is infused into coronary arteries--to see if there are signs of heart artery blockages that could be causing the pain.
In a new study, published in the March 1st issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, investigators found that women with chest pain and a history of anxiety disorders were three times as likely as other women to have angiogram results that showed no signs of serious heart disease.
"This suggests that a quick and dirty assessment of a patient's anxiety-disorder history may not only be a useful, predictive component to the physician's data collection but also that it would be very easy to include in the clinical assessment," Dr. Thomas Rutledge, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health in an interview.
He added that an assessment does not take long and can potentially reduce the number of unnecessary angiogram procedures.
The authors caution that their findings do not mean that women as a group need a less vigorous evaluation of chest pain than men. They note that nearly half--45%--of women with anxiety disorders had moderate-size blockages in their arteries.
Rutledge and colleagues also emphasize that heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women, although women tend to receive less aggressive and relatively delayed treatment compared with men.
It is not clear why women with anxiety disorders and chest pains are less likely to have serious blockages in their heart arteries. However, Rutledge, from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, suggested that these patients may be more attuned to physical symptoms and more likely to pursue treatment before they have major blockages.
"Women with an anxiety-disorder history are almost certainly more aware of bodily sensations and they tend to communicate these symptoms to others, which can have a big affect on the physician's decision about whether or not to send them for an angiogram (heart function test)," he said.
Indeed, study findings show that these patients were more likely to report headaches, muscle tension and back pains, compared with other patients.
The study of 435 women with chest pain who underwent a series of tests revealed that 10% had been treated for an anxiety disorder. These women were more likely to describe "tightness" and "sharp, knife-like pain" in the chest. Their episodes of pain tended to last longer and were more likely to be relieved by rest.
The current findings suggest that "determining a patient's anxiety-disorder history may assist the clinician in identifying women with angina who are at a lower risk of underlying (heart disease)," the study concludes.
SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2001;37:780-785.
| Health Topics | Drug Information | Dictionaries | Directories | Other Resources |
|
U.S. National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894
Copyright and Privacy Policy, We welcome your comments. Last updated: 04 March 2001 |