New Study Warns of Dangers of ‘Silent’ Heart Attacks

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans have largely painless, undetected heart attacks that are more common and more life-threatening than previously thought, new medical research says.

The cardiac events, also called unrecognized myocardial infarctions, are not fully understood and do not produce changes on an electrocardiogram, called Q-waves, which can signal that a heart attack has occurred. That can make diagnosing them very difficult, if not impossible.

Duke University researchers have just wrapped up a new study designed to help them better understand silent heart attacks and how to detect them. Heart disease remains a leading killer of Americans, the number one cause of death ahead of cancer and stroke.

For the study, scientists used delayed enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance, a new type of magnetic resonance imaging technology that is considered best at finding damaged heart tissue. They focused on 185 patients with coronary artery disease, but no recorded heart attacks, who were set to undergo tests to locate blockages in heart arteries.

More than one-third of the patients had evidence of having suffered a prior heart attack, including many events which had not generated Q waves. Silent heart attacks are three times more common than heart attacks that result in Q waves, the study found.

Also, people who suffered a silent heart attack are 11 times more likely to die from any cause and 17 times more at risk of deadly heart complications compared to patients without any heart damage, the study found.

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