Misdiagnosis of Heart attack
Alternative diagnoses list for Heart attack:
For a diagnosis of Heart attack,
the following list of conditions
have been mentioned in sources
as possible alternative diagnoses
to consider during the diagnostic process for Heart attack:
Diseases for which Heart attack may be an alternative diagnosis
The other diseases for which Heart attack
is listed as a possible alternative
diagnosis in their lists include:
Heart attack: Hidden Causes Misdiagnosed?
Causes of Heart attack may include these medical conditions:
Heart attack Diagnosis: Book Excerpts
Heart attack: Medical Mistakes
Related medical mistakes may include:
Heart attack: Undiagnosed Conditions
Commonly undiagnosed conditions in related areas may include:
Common Misdiagnoses and Heart attack
Heart attacks can be undiagnosed: Although the most severe symptoms of heart attack are hard to miss,
there are varying degrees of severity.
It is altogether too common for people to die from undiagnosed heart attack, or from delaying too long
to call for emergency help.
The prognosis for treatment is far better for patients treated in the early stages of a heart attack.
The most common misdiagnoses include heartburn, or other less severe causes of chest pain.
See the introduction to heart attack and the symptoms of heart attack.
Heart attacks can be overdiagnosed: Although many people die from heart attacks, there are also
many cases where people fear that they have a heart attack, but actually have something milder.
Some of the conditions which may be causes of chest pain, causing fear of a heart attack, including
an anxiety attack, heartburn, and so on.
See the causes of chest pain and the symptoms of heart attack.
Rare heart condition often undiagnosed: The rare heart condition called long QT syndrome can lead to episodes of palpitations
and rapid heartbeat.
In rare cases, this undiagnosed condition can be fatal.
It should be considered for any unexplained heart rhythm abnormality.
Heart attack can be over-diagnosed: Although heart attack is often undiagnosed,
leading to fatality, it can also be over-diagnosed.
People become concerned that a condition is a heart attack,
whereas there are various less dangerous possibilities.
After all, there are numerous causes of chest pain.
Some of the common conditions where a person may become concerned
about a possible heart attack include a panic attack (which often has
both chest pain and difficulty breathing), and heartburn/reflux type conditions.
Nevertheless, chest pain itself can be a potentially life-threatening symptoms,
and needs immediate professional attention.
Alzheimer's disease over-diagnosed: The well-known disease of Alzheimer's disease
is often over-diagnosed.
Patients tend to assume that any memory loss or forgetulness symptom might be Alzheimer's,
whereas there are many other less severe possibilities.
Some level of memory decline is normal with aging,
and even a slight loss of acuity may be noticed in the 30's and 40's.
Other conditions can also lead a person to show greater forgetfulness.
For example, depression and depressive disorders can cause a person to
have reduced concentration and thereby poorer memory retention.
Dementia may be a drug interaction: A common scenario in aged care is for
a patient to show mental decline to dementia.
Whereas this can, of course, occur due to various medical conditions,
such as a stroke or Alzheimer's disease,
it can also occur from a side effect or interaction between multiple drugs
that the elderly patient may be taking.
There are also various other possible causes of dementia.
Tremor need not be Parkinson's disease: There is the tendency to believe that
any tremor symptom, or shakiness, means Parkinson's disease.
The reality is that there are various possibilities, such as benign essential tremor,
which is mostly harmless.
see the various causes of tremor and misdiagnosis of Parkinson's disease.
Blood pressure cuffs misdiagnose hypertension in children: One known misdiagnosis issue
with hyperension, arises in relation to the simple equipment used to test blood pressure.
The "cuff" around the arm to measure blood pressure can simply be too small to accurately
test a child's blood pressure.
This can lead to an incorrect diagnosis of a child with hypertension.
The problem even has a name unofficially: "small cuff syndrome".
See misdiagnosis of hypertension.
Rare diseases misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease: A rare genetic
disorder is often misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease for men in their 50's.
The disease Fragile X disorder can show only mild symptoms in the early years,
and Parkinsons-like symptoms around age 50.
See misdiagnosis of Parkinson's disease.
Hypertension misdiagnosis common in children: Hypertension is often
misdiagnosed in adults (see misdiagnosis of hypertension), but its misdiagnosis is even more likely in children.
Some of the symptoms of hypertension that can be overlooked include chest pain, headaches, abdominal pain, etc.
See symptoms of hypertension or misdiagnosis of hypertension.
Silent attack in diabetics: Heart disease is the leading cause of death among diabetics. Patients with type 2 diabetes above the age of 60-65 years are susceptible to silent heart attacks.Diabetes being a multi systemic disorder also affects the nerves causing autonomic neuropathy hence making the heart attack painless.Diabetics who are smokers and have increased blood pressure are more prone for silent attacks and hence these group of patients must undergo screening tests like a treadmill stress test.Some of the symptoms that patients can experience includes mild discomfort in the chest,jaw or arms which is relieved on taking rest,shortness of breath and tiredness. Some of the investigations in addition to a good clinical history that need to be done include an electrocardiogram,estimation of the cardiac enzymes.
Epigastric pain could be dangerous: Pain in the epigastic region could be due to something as simple as reflux disesea or more serious entities such as rupture of an aortic aneurysm or cancer of stomach. The onset of the pain,duration, intensity, type, aggravating and relieving factors are impotant in determining an acute condition. Quick diagnosis of a ruptured aortic aneuysm can save the life of the patient. An abdominal ultrasound can help find out the exact cause of the epigastic pain. Conditions which may present with epigastric pain include peptic ulcer, liver abscess, gastric cancer, liver cancer, myocardial infarction. It is important to know thatt a heart attacks can show up with an atypical presentation of epigastric pain. Early reporting to the doctor on occurence of epigastric pain helps save the life of many patients.
Heart attack: Rare Types
Rare types of medical disorders and diseases in related medical areas:
Medical news summaries about misdiagnosis of Heart attack:
The following medical news items
are relevant to misdiagnosis of Heart attack:
General Misdiagnosis Articles
Read these general articles with an overview of misdiagnosis issues.
About misdiagnosis:
When checking for a misdiagnosis of Heart attack
or confirming a diagnosis of Heart attack,
it is useful to consider what other
medical conditions might be possible misdiagnoses or other alternative
conditions relevant to diagnosis.
These alternate diagnoses of Heart attack may already have
been considered by your doctor or may need to be considered as possible
alternative diagnoses or candidates for misdiagnosis of Heart attack.
For a general overview of misdiagnosis issues for all diseases,
see Overview of Misdiagnosis.
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