Heart disease affects women differently because women have different symptoms and are more likely to die within a year of a heart attack, while health experts say women may not respond as positively to clot solubilizers as men. Medicines or special medical procedures related to the heart. Heart disease can develop into a sudden and potentially fatal heart attack when it begins in childhood and progresses silently over time.
In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Dr. Tilak Suvarna, senior interventional cardiologist and head of the department of cardiology at the Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai, insists that it is unwise to wait for symptoms to appear before diagnosing heart problems in women and that it is necessary to go through it. Cardiovascular examination required at appropriate age. He recommends these tests for women in the 20-40 age group:
1. Electrocardiogram (ECG) – By recording electrical signals in the heart, it helps to quickly detect heart problems and monitor heart health, such as arrhythmia (heart beat too slow, too fast or irregularly), blocked or narrowed arteries, syncope of the pacemaker with your body, cardiomyopathy. (the walls of the heart are thickened or enlarged) or a previous heart attack.
2. Lipid Profile – Also known as a cholesterol test or lipid panel. A lipid profile test is a blood test that measures the amount of cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood. It determines your risk of fatty deposits in your arteries that can lead to narrowed or blocked arteries throughout your body.
3. Fasting Blood Sugar – This test helps measure blood sugar after an overnight fast. A fasting blood sugar level of less than 100 mg/dL is normal, 100 to 125 mg/dL is considered pre-diabetes, and 126 mg/dL or more determines you have diabetes.
For the 40-60 age group, he prescribed the following tests –
1. Treadmill Exercise Stress Test – This is done to assess the cause of chest pain or shortness of breath, or as part of a health screening package to determine your heart’s tolerance for exercise and to see if there is any narrowing of the heart’s arteries.
2. Imaging Exercise Stress Test – Also called a nuclear or sestamibi stress test or stress echocardiography, it helps to evaluate the cause of chest pain if the stress test is inconclusive, as this test is more accurate than a routine stress test.
3. CT Scan of Heart for Coronary Artery Calcium (CAC) Scoring – The coronary artery calcium (CAC) score measures the amount of calcified plaque in those arteries, which is important because coronary plaque is the main underlying cause of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which can lead to events such as heart attack and stroke. At any age, 0 is the ideal and normal calcium score. This test may be recommended for people with heart attack risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, a family history of heart disease, and obesity. This test is useful for determining heart attack risk and for further risk stratification in deciding whether to start statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs) and aspirin.
4. CT Coronary Angiography – Heart blocks may need to be ruled out as a cause of chest pain in women, when other tests such as ECG, 2D-Echo, or stress tests are inconclusive.
The main thing is that we can not wait for more research to deepen our understanding of the action measures to reduce the risk of heart disease in women.