\n<\/p>\n
Doctors have agreed the world\u2019s first universal definition of a heart attack, paving the way for millions of women to finally receive better treatment after decades of being \u201cdeprioritised\u201d.<\/p>\n
In one of the biggest procedural shake-ups in a generation, the world\u2019s four leading cardiovascular health groups have signed off on new guidance for healthcare professionals when seeing suspected heart attack patients.<\/p>\n
Historically, some less common forms of heart attack, which evidence shows typically affect women far more than men, have been coded as less important, with treatment and care often worse as a result.<\/p>\n
Until now, experts said, women had been getting less effective treatments, which did not always target the specific cause of their heart attack and could even make them more unwell.<\/p>\n
Now the world\u2019s top cardiologists have promised a \u201crevolution\u201d in care after agreeing the biggest overhaul of how heart attacks are defined and diagnosed in decades, in part to reduce the often deadly delays afflicting women.<\/p>\n
The landmark agreement was announced in Munich on the opening day of the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the world\u2019s largest heart conference.<\/p>\n
The new guidance will upgrade three types of attack that are up to 10 times more common in women and often caused by childbirth, exercise and emotional stress.<\/p>\n
The most serious cases, previously known as \u201ctype 1\u201d and now classed as \u201cprimary\u201d heart attacks, had previously prioritised those caused by a clot blocking blood flow to the heart.<\/p>\n
However, the types of attacks more common in women involve reduced blood flow for other reasons, such as a tear or tightening of arteries, and are more likely to be missed or not treated as urgently, with delays to care.<\/p>\n
The new guidelines will also reduce the threshold for any type of heart attack to be diagnosed in women based upon the levels of a protein called troponin in their blood.<\/p>\n
Until now, women had been expected to reach the same threshold as men for troponin \u2013 which is released when the heart is injured and damaged \u2013 to get a diagnosis.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters in Munich, Prof Bryan Williams, the chief scientific and medical officer of the British Heart Foundation, Britain\u2019s biggest heart charity, said: \u201cThis is a landmark moment, a radical shift in how we define and diagnose heart attacks worldwide which will transform people\u2019s care.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor decades, women have missed out on accurate diagnoses and treatment. This focus on finding less common causes of heart attacks, which predominantly affect women, should help to change that. It could be life-changing for huge numbers of women in the UK and worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crucially, the new streamlined heart attack categories will also help patients to fully understand the cause of their heart attack and what comes next, Williams said.<\/p>\n
The three types of heart attacks that have been upgraded \u2013 and which mostly affect women \u2013 are coronary artery spasm, coronary embolism, and spontaneous coronary artery dissection (Scad).<\/p>\n
The first involves the tightening of the artery, which can deprive the heart muscle of blood and oxygen and cause a heart attack, and can be caused by emotional stress, exercise or extreme cold.<\/p>\n
The second is where a blood clot or fatty deposit travels to a coronary artery and causes a blockage.<\/p>\n
And the third is caused by a tear in the coronary artery, which occurs in women at least 80% of the time and often happens during or soon after pregnancy.<\/p>\n
Prof Nicholas Mills, a cardiologist at the University of Edinburgh who led the international taskforce of doctors that agreed the new guidelines, said it was \u201cthe first time that we\u2019ve had a truly global approach to aligning how we diagnose what is probably the most important diagnosis there is\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kills so many people, and we\u2019ve never got everyone together around the world to agree how we\u2019re going to describe it, classify it, explain it to our patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur job now is to implement this as widely as possible. It\u2019s just as relevant for the UK as it is for any other country around the world. It is a revolution. It\u2019s going to make care better for patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mills said there had been \u201cunintended systematic bias against women\u201d, including by using the key blood test for diagnosing heart attacks at an average level, which picks up all men but misses some women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is used for all types of heart attack in every emergency department in the world, and we want to make sure that it\u2019s used correctly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The new guidelines, published in the European Heart Journal, were drawn up by the world\u2019s four leading cardiovascular health groups: the ESC, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the World Heart Federation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doctors have agreed the world\u2019s first universal definition of a heart attack, paving the way for millions of women to finally receive better treatment after decades of being \u201cdeprioritised\u201d. In one of the biggest procedural shake-ups in a generation, the world\u2019s four leading cardiovascular health groups have signed off on new guidance for healthcare professionals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[673,165,6138,3411,1529,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-51995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-attack","9":"tag-care","10":"tag-definition","11":"tag-heart","12":"tag-promises","13":"tag-women"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}