In almost 10% of heart attacks, no obvious cause in the coronary artery can be found.
Some of the patients are diagnosed with the broken-heart syndrome, while others are left without a diagnosis.
In a new study from Karolinska Institutet, researchers found that early magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the heart can greatly increase the rate of diagnosis.
Heart attack is one of the most common diseases in the West, and is usually caused by a blood clot that blocks the coronary artery on the heart’s surface.
However, in up to 10% of all heart attacks, no obvious cause in the coronary artery is found.
Such patients are given the working diagnosis MINOCA (heart attack with non-obstructive coronary arteries), which can subsequently lead to one of several diagnoses.
The majority of the patients are women, many of whom are diagnosed with takotsubo cardiomyopathy (broken-heart syndrome).
This is a condition characterized by reduced heart function that is probably related to stress and that presents the same symptoms as a regular heart attack.
Around 80 to 90% of broken-heart sufferers are women, and the disease is linked to mental stress. There also seems to be a link to hypersensitivity towards stress caused by low estrogen levels.
In the study, the team tested a new cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) technique in 148 patients.
They found that a full 77% of the patients could be given a diagnosis correctly.
The results suggest that with early examination more patients can get a correct diagnosis and therefore the right treatment.
The next step is for us to develop the CMR examination with pharmacological stress of the heart. This will enable the team to study the smallest of the blood vessels and hopefully find a cause for the 23% who received no diagnosis.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how much weight loss do you need to live longer and have a healthy heart? and findings of omega-3 fats may strongly protect heart health.
For more information about heart disease prevention and treatment, please see recent studies about this vitamin supplement may hide heart attacks if used too much and results showing that this old drug has a unique role in preventing heart attacks.
The study is published in JACC Cardiovascular Imaging. One author of the study is Per Tornvall.
Copyright © 2021 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
