Omroep Venlo – VieCuri can now often determine the cause of chest pain

VieCuri Hospital has recently been able to diagnose a relatively unknown condition that causes chest pain. Until recently, no clear cause was often found.

In the case of complaints such as chest pain, fatigue and shortness of breath, people quickly think of a heart problem. In practice, however, no cause was found in more than half of the cases. This caused doubts and stress in patients and in a number of cases therefore exacerbated the complaints.

Vascular function test

VieCuri is now the fifth hospital in the Netherlands to diagnose cardiovascular dysfunction. This is a relatively unknown disease, in which there is something wrong with the functioning of the large and/or small arteries around the heart. With a vascular function test, VieCuri can make the correct diagnosis in eighty percent of cases, the hospital reports. ‘Just making the diagnosis gives people peace of mind. It is enormous progress that we now finally understand these misunderstood complaints’, says cardiologist Joan Meeder. ‘Stress makes the complaints worse and at the same time people get stress when they feel something. We can break this vicious circle with lifestyle advice and medicines.’

Women

In the Netherlands, approximately 60,000 patients have to deal with the disease, 10,000 of which experience serious complaints on a daily basis. In two thirds of the cases it concerns women, often in the menopause. ‘This is mainly due to the protection offered by the hormone estrogen. Cardiovascular problems usually manifest themselves earlier in men,’ says Meeder. ‘Men are more likely to have to deal with clogged vessels because they lack the protection from estrogens that women have for a long time. If the estrogen level drops in women around the menopause, that protection is lost for them.’