Latest research suggests that pain-free hearts attacks are more deadly than the painful ones.
What's more the research, published in Tuesday's edition of medical journal Chest, found that one in 12 heart attack victims suffers a silent one increasing the possibilty of misdiagnosis or improper treatment.
The study found that patients with atypical symptoms were 10 times more likely to be misdiagnosed and three times more likely to die than those who suffer chest pain.
The study was conducted by a team at the St Michael's Hospital in Toronto.
The victims of silent heart attacks do not experience the typical crushing pain in the chest. They have more moderate symptoms such as shortness of breath, excessive sweating, fainting, nausea and vomitting and nagging pain in the shoulder or jaw.
The study also found that women over 65 tend to more prone to silent attacks than men in the same age group. The risk increases when combined with chronic conditions like diabetes.
Lead researcer cardiologist David Brieger of Sydney's Concord Hospital said the findings should serve as an alarm bell for doctors have to be alert and open-minded while diagnosing heart attacks.
"Often, when a patient arrives at the hospital without chest pain, it is only after blood test results come back or other diagnoses are excluded that the physician reassesses the situation and realises it is an acute cardiac event after all," he said.
"We hope our findings will remind physicians that these events do occur in the absence of chest pain and will prompt them to make the diagnosis and institute the appropriate treatment more rapidly."
A heart attack occurs when a coronary artery, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle, becomes blocked by a buildup of fatty plaque. To conduct the study, researchers analysed data from 20,881 patients in 14 countries who were hospitalised with a variety of health conditions between July, 1999 and June, 2002.
Of the 1,763 patients who had heart attacks without experiencing chest pain, 13 per cent died in hospital, compared to 4.3 per cent of those with chest pain. Almost 24 per cent of patients without chest pain were misdiagnosed when they arrived at the hospital, compared to only 2.4 per cent who had typical symptoms.
Agencies
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