Researchers have discovered there are no gender-specific differences in heart attack diagnosis, meaning gender-specific diagnostic testing is not useful for the disease, according to research in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The study in question tracked nearly 2,500 patients, both men and women, who came to emergency departments with chest pain between 2006 and 2012. Approximately 500 of the patients were diagnosed with a heart attack.
Researchers examined the gender-specific diagnostic performance of 34 chest pain characteristics for each of the patients diagnosed with a heart attack.
While many chest pain characteristics commonly presented in both men and women, three characteristics related to chest pain duration showed significant differences in gender-specific performance. These characteristics were unhelpful in diagnosis, as their presence could not be definitively correlated with either a presence or absence of heart attacks.
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