DIAGNOSTIC (TEST) ERROR IN PATIENT WITH HEART DISEASE
One of the main reasons for sudden death or slump and die is heart disease, and majority of people are unaware of this due to its similarity symptoms with other health conditions.
If you are to have an issue with your heart, would you know of it? And how would you confirm it from other health conditions? Well, most heart problems don’t come with a clear warning signs, and some heart symptoms
don’t even happen in your chest region. Therefore, you may not know what is going on with your heart until it becomes late.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death worldwide, claiming 17.9 million lives every year according to World Health Organization (WHO). 4 out of 5 CDV deaths are caused by heart attacks and strokes, and one third of these deaths occur prematurely.
According to Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 655,000 Americans die from heart disease every year, while one person dies every 36 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease.
In the United States, someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds. Every year, about 805,000 Americans have a heart attack.
HeartFlow a medical heart clinic in USA asserts that, despite many recent advances in cardiovascular diagnosis and treatment, misdiagnosis is still a common concern for patients with heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States.
if a country like America with quality healthcare system can record such high rate of deaths caused by heart diseases, what do you think is happening here in Nigeria with poor healthcare system? This is one of the main reason untimely death and slump and die are so common these days.
The fact is that wrong diagnosis has caused more harm than good (even death) to patients with heart disease due to its similarity symptoms with other health conditions. Therefor, don’t be a victim to sudden death caused by heart disease due to wrong diagnosis.
Take a look at these symptoms to know if you are experiencing anyone
of them in other to take precaution immediately:
1. Nausea, Indigestion, Heartburn, or Stomach Pain: Some people have these symptoms during a heart attack. Some may even vomit. Of course, you can have an upset stomach for many reasons that have nothing to do with your heart. It could be something you ate, after all. But you need to be aware that it can also be a sign of heart attack.
2. Shoulder, arm, neck, back, abdomen, or jaw pain: When your heart is over worked, it can cause pain to other parts of your body. Arm pain is a common heart attack symptom, but it can also occur in the shoulders, back, stomach, or jaw. It always starts from the chest and moves outward. But we have diagnosed some patients who have mainly arm pain that turned out to be chronic heart disease.
3. You feel Dizzy or lightheaded: Losing your balance or feeling faint especially when standing up, usually means there is not enough blood flow to the brain. Other factors could cause that too, but it could also mean that your blood pressure has dropped because your heart is not able to pump the way it should due to heart disease or blood vessels – arteries issues.
4. Sweating: Breaking out in a cold sweat for no obvious reason could signal a heart attack, especially if this happens along with any of these other signs or symptoms
5. You Get Exhausted Easily: .If you suddenly feel fatigued or winded or shortness of breath after doing something you had no problem doing before– like climbing the staircase or carrying something from the car, it could be a sign that your heart is not pumping well, or is encountering some other problem like a blockage or a valve issue.
6. Persistent cough: If you have a long-lasting cough that produces white or pink mucus, it could be a sign of heart failure. This happens when the heart can’t keep up with the body’s demands, causing blood to leak back into the lungs, which can trigger coughing or wheezing.
7. Swelling in the legs, feet or ankles: This could be a sign that your heart doesn’t pump blood as effectively as it should. When the heart can’t pump fast enough, blood backs up in the veins and causes swollen. Heart failure can also make it harder for the kidneys to remove extra water and sodium from the body, which can also lead to swollen.
8. Chest discomfort: Squeezing, tightness, pressure, or heaviness in your chest is a sign of heart danger. The feeling usually lasts longer than a few minutes. It may happen when you are at rest or when you are doing physical something.
9. Sleep apnea, snoring, or waking up during the night: Heart attack could be behind your poor night’s sleep. Your blood flow and heart rate changes when you go to sleep when everything is working well. But if something goes wrong, it could be waking you up at night.
10. Leg and hand cramps, numbness or tingling: Although Leg and hand cramps, numbness or tingling, can be as a result of involuntary contraction of one or more of your muscles or other issues, but it can also be a sign that your blood circulation is impaired due to heart condition. The main organ behind blood flow is your heart.
11. Hypertension (High blood pressure): High blood pressure often has no sign or symptoms. You can have high blood pressure for many years without knowing, and it can lead to various heart problems. Even without any sign or symptoms, damage to your heart continues until it becomes late.