As many as half of all heart attacks may be “silent” — without the typical crushing chest pain, shortness of breath and cold sweats, new study findings suggest.
Among nearly 9,500 Americans included in the study, 45 percent of all heart attacks were silent, investigators found. And, the study authors said, these silent heart attacks triple the odds of dying from heart disease.
“Silent heart attacks are almost as common as heart attacks with symptoms and just as bad,” said senior study author Dr. Elsayed Soliman. He is director of the epidemiological cardiology research center at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.
