Fatigue Often Precedes Heart Attack in Women
 (NY, Reuters Health,11/3/03)

Dr. Jean C. McSweeney of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, and team, conducted a telephone survey of 515 women who had suffered heart attacks within the past 6 months. The investigators questioned the subjects on their symptoms prior to and during the attack. All but 5% of the women described the onset of unusual symptoms-including, extreme fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety, indigestion and shortness of breath-during the weeks preceding the event. Less than one-third had felt chest pain and, when they did, they described pressure, aching or tightness, not the acute pain that men experience when having a heart attack. The researchers conclude that the fact that a female's experience of heart attack tends to be so different from that of a male may cause both doctor and patient to fail to recognize signs of this serious condition in women