Nearly 30-35 percent individuals in India between 35 to 50 years could have had “silent heart attacks”: Dr Pranav Kabra

MUMBAI: According to diabetes and cardiac specialist Dr Pranav Kabra of the Raksha Multispeciality Hospital in suburban Mumbai at Malad, approximately 30 to 35 percent individuals between 35 to 50 years of age in India could have suffered silent heart attacks, without their knowledge or any symptoms showing up, yet lethal in the long run as the heart disease further worsens.

Most patients who suffer from silent heart attacks could be oblivious to the same, assuming they have a strained shoulder or hurt chest muscle or any other ailment except for an actual heart attack.

A silent heart attack may not cause chest pain or shortness of breath or sweating, or symptoms, which are typically associated with a heart attack by most people.

Those who suffer a silent heart attack may presume they have a heartburn, a flu or a strained chest or shoulder muscle. However, a silent heart attack, like any heart attack, involves blockage of blood flow to the heart and possible damage to the heart muscle and structure and is almost as dangerous as a normal heart attack, if not more dangerous as the patient is unaware of what’s lurking inside the body.

A silent heart attack is a heart attack that has very few, or no symptoms or has symptoms not recognized as those of a heart attack.

About one in four heart attacks are “silent” or maybe even one in three, because many, if not 90 percent of silent heart attacks go unrecognized and unreported and the patient is oblivious to the fact that he is suffering or has suffered a heart attack.

While in some cases, silent heart attacks can be identified after an electrocardiogram (ECG test) but some really silent heart attacks are not detected by ECG tests, particularly if the test is done hours or days later.

Patients who suffered a silent heart attack are at a much greater risk of death from a normal heart attack later on, than those who have a heart attack with recognized symptoms and took treatment and corrective action in time, opines Dr Kabra.

Patients who had a silent heart attack have a three-fold or greater likelihood of dying from heart disease or future heart attacks, as the initial trouble was unnoticed and untreated, says Dr Kabra.