Current Heart Attack Guidelines Miss Nearly Half of At-Risk Patients, Study Finds
If you were asked to picture someone headed for their first heart attack, you would probably imagine someone with high cholesterol, a smoker, obese, and with elevated blood lipids—the classic profile. However, people who fit this description make up only a small share of those who go on to have heart attacks.
TL;DR
- New research suggests doctors should screen for plaque in arteries, not solely rely on traditional risk factors.
- Many heart attacks occur in individuals considered low risk by current medical guidelines.
- The study from Mount Sinai investigated the effectiveness of existing risk assessment tools in identifying potential heart attack patients.