Author(s): Lynda Charters Fact checked by: Karen S. DeLoss, OD, FAAO
Key Takeaways
- Ocular exams can reveal cardiovascular health issues, especially in women, whose symptoms often differ from traditional expectations.
- Women may experience atypical cardiac symptoms, and structural differences in their cardiovascular systems contribute to unique disease presentations.
- Diagnostic and treatment approaches must be tailored to gender-specific differences in cardiovascular disease.
- Ophthalmologists and optometrists should consider cardiovascular implications during eye exams, as ocular signs can indicate underlying systemic conditions.
As emerging research and real-world cases show, the eyes can offer a critical window into cardiovascular health—especially for women, whose symptoms and disease patterns often defy conventional expectations. The exam chair is more than a place to treat ocular surface disease; it is a front line in the fight to recognize and act on the hidden signs of systemic disease, including heart attacks that may first reveal themselves through visual symptoms or subtle patient cues.
Until recently, cardiac disease was defined by the symptoms that manifested in men. The classic expectation has been crushing or squeezing chest pain. Other possible symptoms were arm, neck, or jaw pain; dyspnea; fatigue; nausea; sweating; and dizziness, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).1
In women, however, the clinical picture often can differ substantially from what was considered the norm. Although chest pain still remains the first symptom, that is not the case for many women. Importantly, among those with chest pain, the sensation may be different, in that women may describe it as pressure or tightness and therefore write it off as a passing anomaly other than a cardiac event. 2 Other symptoms that women experience include pain or pressure in the lower chest or upper abdomen; jaw, neck, or upper back pain; nausea or vomiting; shortness of breath, fainting; cold sweats; indigestion; and extreme fatigue.2
Several factors contribute to the differences in how cardiac disease affects men and women, according to the Cardiology Department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to variations in symptoms, structural and physiological differences between the sexes help explain why heart disease may present and progress differently in women.3
Read more & listen to the article: https://shorturl.at/3X4Xn
Source: Ophthalmology Times