Women 'show fewer heart symptoms'

Women are more likely than men to suffer a heart attack without chest pains, new research suggests.

A study found that 42% of women did not experience chest pain symptoms, compared with 30% of men.

Experts warned that some women may not be getting the right medical care because they do not display the classic signs of a heart attack.

Dr John Canto, from the Watson Clinic in Lakeland, Florida, who worked on the report, said: 'They might not even know they're having a heart attack.'

The study of more than one million people found that men were much more likely to have heart attacks than women.

However, women were more likely to die than men in the under-55 age group, the research suggests.

The findings, based on data from more than 1,000 US hospitals, have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The authors wrote: 'Optimal recognition and timely management of myocardial infarction (MI), especially for reducing patient delay in seeking acute medical care, is critical.

'The presence of chest pain/discomfort is the hallmark symptom of MI.

'Patients without chest pain/discomfort tend to present later, are treated less aggressively, and have almost twice the short-term mortality compared with those presenting with more typical symptoms of MI.'

Copyright Press Association 2012