New Delhi, August 28
According to a new study published in The Lancet Digital Health, people noticed different warning signs based on their gender before having a sudden heart attack.
The study led by Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in California, US, discovered that women are more likely to feel short of breath before having a sudden cardiac arrest, while men are more likely to experience chest pain. However, some groups of both males and females experienced heart palpitations, seizure-like activity, and symptoms similar to having the flu.
Additionally, the researchers discovered that 50% of people who experienced a sudden cardiac arrest felt at least one symptom such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, feeling dizzy, or an irregular heartbeat within 24 hours before their heart stopped working.
Using warning signs to quickly identify and prioritize people in urgent need of emergency healthcare could help save lives by getting them help sooner, according to the study.
“We discovered something that could change how we prevent sudden heart attacks,” said Sumeet Chugh, from the Smidt Heart Institute and senior author of the study.
A recent study found that 90% of people who experience sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital die. This shows that we need to find better ways to predict and prevent this condition.
Researchers for this study used information from two different studies conducted in the United States. One study was called the Prediction of Sudden Death in Multi-Ethnic Communities (PRESTO) and was done in California. The other study was called the Sudden Unexpected Death Study (SUDS) and was done in Oregon.
Half of the 823 people, or 411 people, who had a sudden heart attack and were seen by someone or a medical professional had at least one sign of a problem 24 hours before, according to the PRESTO study. It began eight years ago and included a total of 1672 people who had a heart attack outside of a hospital and were likely caused by a heart problem.
The SUDS study, which started 22 years ago, also found similar results, according to the researchers. Rephrase this text using easy words:
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