During confinement, a decrease in emergency room attendance was noted. This is due to patients’ fear of clogging up already overcrowded healthcare facilities or of being infected with Covid-19 in the hospital. Result? Many people have been victims of “loss of opportunity”, in other words a deterioration in their state of health due to the lack of timely care.
And for good reason: health problems other than Covid-19 also require rapid treatment. This is particularly the case of cardiovascular diseases. The wait therefore causes an over-risk, particularly marked in women, “because they usually underestimate their symptoms,” read a press release from the Agir pour le Coeur des Femmes foundation.
Infarction: the need for rapid management
How to explain this phenomenon ? “More concerned about the health of their families, performance in teleworking and, unfortunately, for many of them exposed to isolation, social insecurity or marital stress, they are in denial of atypical cardiovascular alert symptoms”, explains Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier, cardiologist, head of the Vascular Medicine and HTA service, Institut Cœur Poumon, Lille University Hospital.
At the end of confinement, some doctors therefore observe a resurgence of infarctions in women. A worrying reality, because taking care within three hours is essential to save the heart muscle.
Infarction: atypical symptoms in women
This is why the Agir pour le Coeur des Femmes foundation warns of the need to call 15 as soon as symptoms suggestive of a heart attack appear. They can manifest themselves differently in women because some of these symptoms are atypical. It could be:
chest tightness; great anguish; shortness of breath; palpitations; severe fatigue; nausea; gastric pain.
As a reminder, cardiovascular disease is the first
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