Symptoms vary, it strikes later in life, and, most alarmingly, it often goes unrecognized.
The federally funded project and other research efforts are shedding light on why current diagnostic tests often fail to detect problems in women with heart disease. The tests, like many treatments, have been designed for men. We tried to force them into the same patterns and test findings we had become accustomed to over a century with men. Among the most promising developments is the realization that women with chest pain, called angina, often don't have the clogged arteries found in men with chest pain. Instead, their heart disease seems to involve other conditions, such as abnormalities in their microvessels.