Dyspnoea most common cardiac arrest warning sign in women: study
Shortness of breath and chest pain were the most frequently reported symptoms overall, doctors find.
Early symptoms of imminent sudden cardiac arrest appear to be more subtle in women than men, with dyspnoea emerging as the key pre-arrest warning signal in female patients, research shows.Â
US doctors have found that women were nearly three times more likely to report dyspnoea before out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest compared with emergency patients without the life-threatening condition.
In contrast, men were about twice as likely to report chest pain, dyspnoea and diaphoresis as early warning symptoms versus controls.
The Smidt Heart Institute-led team in Los Angeles, California stressed that no individual warning symptom was prevalent enough to warrant use alone for predicting impending sudden cardiac arrest.
