Many women suffer different heart attack symptoms to men

A study in the United States has found that the symptoms of a heart attack are often different in women than they are men.

Researchers at the Watson Clinic and Lakeland Regional Medical Center in Florida found that a large number of women aged under 55 did not feel any kind of chest pain when they suffered a heart attack.

Because of this the study suggests that many women are not receiving the right kind of treatment.

Of 1000 heart patients studied, 42 per cent of women said that they did not feel any pain or discomfort in their chest, compared with 30 per cent of men.

Overall, men are significantly more likely to suffer a heart defect than women, but under the age of 55 it is females which are more likely to die – 14 per cent opposed to 10 per cent.

The study was lead by John G. Canto, M.D., M.S.P.H and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Mr Canto said: "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."

Despite all this, heart attacks in women under 55 are very uncommon. The average female admitted to hospital with heart issues is 74 years of age, compared to 67 in men.

Britain has one of the worst heart attack rates in the world, with the BBC estimating that someone suffers one every two minutes.

In excess of 1.4 million people suffer from angina, while some 275,000 have a heart attack each year. Of these, around 140,000 are fatal.