Jennifer Tucker goes to the gym five times a week and loves eating healthy food.
The fit mother of two had absolutely no risk factors for heart disease such as high blood pressure or cholesterol, smoking or a family history, but at the age of 35, she knew something was wrong.
Key points:
- New research shows heart attacks are more likely to be deadly among people who have no risk factors
- The study of 60,000 people shows women without key heart attack risk factors are at the highest risk of dying from one
- The lead author says it may be that these patients are not receiving sufficient post-heart-attack care
"I couldn't push a pram uphill without becoming breathless, so I knew something wasn't right, that I wasn't 100 per cent," Ms Tucker said.
The first GP she saw dismissed her concerns, but the second doctor sent her for a range of tests.
A heart angiogram revealed why she had been feeling so unwell.
"I was absolutely stunned when they told me my heart was 90 per cent blocked," Ms Tucker said.
Risk of death increases by 50 per cent
New research from Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital and the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance, which has been published in The Lancet medical journal, has revealed when people like Ms Tucker have heart attacks, they actually fare worse than people who have pre-existing health problems like high blood pressure.
Cardiologist Gemma Figtree analysed more than 62,000 people who had heart attacks from plaque in their coronary arteries, from data collected from a Swedish heart registry.
"Despite their perceived low risk of having coronary disease, they had a much higher mortality rate compared to people who had traditional risk factors explaining a heart attack," she said.
In fact, patients who had no risk factors were almost 50 per cent more likely to die 30 days after a heart attack than people with risk factors.
And the impact was even worse for women.
"A woman who had a heart attack related to plaque in [her] arteries [with no risk factors] had a three times higher mortality [risk] than a man who came to hospital with heart disease causing his heart attack," Professor Figtree said.
"It shows we need to think beyond traditional risk factors to find out what is driving the increased heart attacks and mortality."
ABC News: Brendan Esposito
)Electrical problems in heart can lead to attack
Heart disease and stroke are the biggest killers of Australian men and women.
It is estimated up to 15 per cent of people who have a heart attack do not have risk factors such as diabetes, smoking or obesity.
Professor Figtree said many patients who had heart attacks without risk factors often suffered electrical problems in their heart leading to sudden cardiac death.
"The biology that drives the susceptibility to heart disease in these individuals may actually unlock all sorts of information that helps us better understand the rest of the population at risk of heart disease," she said.
Once Ms Tucker's heart blockage was discovered, doctors inserted a stent to get the blood flowing and she made a full recovery.
ABC News: Brendan Esposito
)Her message is simple.
"You have to take your health seriously and if you feel like you are not getting the answers from your GP, then keep pursuing it because you know when something is not right in your own body," Ms Tucker said.
Professor Figtree is now leading more research, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, to find out why these risk-free heart attack patients are more likely to die and whether they can be identified much earlier.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTAzLTEwL2hlYXJ0LWF0dGFjay1wYXRpZW50cy13aXRob3V0LXJpc2stZmFjdG9ycy1tb3JlLWxpa2VseS10by1kaWUvMTMyMzA0MTjSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTMyMzA0MTg?oc=5
2021-03-09 23:32:39Z
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