The Record Special Sections Health Quarterly 02-17-2019

PHOTO COURTESY
OF GETTY IMAGES
One in four
Americans has
cardiovascular
disease and most
don’t know it, as
the symptoms often
go unrecognized or
there are no symp-
toms to recognize.
Physicians recom-
mend self-aware-
ness, particularly if
a person already has
existing risk factors.
Regular checkups
with electrocardio-
grams and periodic
stress tests can
identify a potential
cardiac condition,
if it exists.
Health Quarterly
n Cycling for Fitness: Riding
And Spinning to Good Health
n Learning Through Simulated
Emergencies – Ready for
‘When It Really Matters’
The Silent Heart Attack
Unrecognized, Few or Even No
Symptoms Can Have Serious Results
By KATHLEEN MATHIEU
Special to Health Quarterly
C
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SUPPLEMENT TO
FEBRUARY 17, 2019
lose to 800,000 Americans have
a heart attack every year, according
to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. A significant portion
of these potentially fatal medical events will
be shrouded in the mystery of the some-
what inaptly named silent heart attack.
A mystery to laypeople, that is.
Cardiologists regularly see how misconcep-
tions prevent patients from obtaining the
care that they need. This is particularly true
for the silent heart attack, during which the
victim may have no or few symptoms.
LISTEN MORE CAREFULLY
There’s even danger in the descriptor
“silent,” said Gerald Sotsky, MD, chair of
Cardiac Services for Valley Medical Group
and director of the Valley/Cleveland Clinic
Affiliation. Although some people have no
symptoms, it is equally important that the
signs of a heart attack can be present but
unrecognized by the patient. For example,
it can be easy to dismiss shortness of
breath, indigestion, light-headedness or
a drenching sweat, said the non-invasive
cardiologist.
“Anything between the waist and the
jaw can be the heart,” explained the doctor.
Pain, the way the body communicates the
existence of a problem, is referred away
from the heart and felt elsewhere.
Self-diagnosis can
be one of our worst
enemies. One case in
point was the woman
who told the doctor
that although she had
experienced discom-
fort, she was sure that
she hadn’t had a heart
attack because there
was no radiating pain Dr. Gerald Sotsky
to her arm. It’s human nature to tend to
diminish the significance of symptoms. “No
one likes to get bad news,” said Dr. Sotsky.
THE CLOCK IS TICKING
The absence of severe pain or any other
of the better-known indications of a heart
attack does not mean that a silent heart
attack is necessarily less serious than the
more apparent kind, said William Salerno,
MD, director, Cardiac Care Unit and direc-
tor, Advanced Cardiovascular Assessment
See HEART ATTACK Page 4