Silent heart attacks are the ones that occur but show little to no signs or symptoms. They may be consistent and might be mistaken for indigestion, muscles ache, nausea, or severe flu. You may not experience any kind of chest pain or shortness of breath in this condition. Silent heart attacks have been through detailed research and scientists believe that it might occur due to unknown mysterious origins that have been undiscovered yet. Having recurrent silent heart attacks will put you on the severe risk of heart attack that could be lethal.
Having heart attacks, again and again, will also lead to heart failure and ultimately death without knowing the original cause. Currently, there is no diagnostic test which can determine the state, type, and origin of silent heart attacks. But people can be checked according to their health conditions and risks factors. People at higher risk factor are often alerted and advised to maintain their health by keeping an eye on their blood pressure, cholesterol level, body weight, dietary habits, and physical activities. Lack of exercise, obesity and strong family history are the most prevalent factors that contribute to lower heart health.
According to an NIA-led study, a comparison of heart and brain imaging data from old aged participants have shown silent heart attacks depicts no sign, therefore, patients won’t go to hospitals for proper treatment and this will affect the cardiac health by scarring the heart. The damaged cardiac tissues are the main cause of raising the risk of stroke. The research teams of NIA, NHLBI, Weill Cornell Medical College and the Icelandic Heart Association collaborated and conducted a study by analyzing 930 participants aged around 75 years. This study includes their age, family history, and environment.
AGES is a study that examines genetic as wells as environmental risk factors according to their age and related diseases and disabilities. The results obtained after this study were published in JAMA Neurology on May 20.both cardiac and brain MRI has been done of all the participants which showed 153 participants had experienced undetected heart attack while the cardiac MRI of 308 gave evidence of cerebral infarction or stroke. About 43.8% of participants with evidence of silent heart attack also showed evidence of stroke in their brain MRI.
The unnoticed heart attacks were associated with ESUS, an embolic stroke of undetermined source. One-third of all the strokes account for all ischemic strokes which occur due to loss of oxygen supply via blood to the brain. The major trigger is the presence of clots or vascular debris inside the body. This vascular debris could be the byproduct of cardiac scarring due to silent heart attacks.
Scientists are planning further to study more about how this could be diagnosed, prevented and treated on time to avoid cardiac emergencies. All the results have been pointing the timing of attacks. The unrecognized origin of these silent heart attacks is currently acting as a new risk factor for more severe complications regarding cardiac health.