WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - African-American women tend to have more intense and more frequent symptoms like discomfort and headache in the months or years leading up to a heart attack, a researcher reported here Saturday.

Symptoms reported by all women included fatigue, shortness of breath, indigestion and feeling anxious.

Compared with other women, African-American women had a higher intensity and frequency of headache, vision problems and difficulty breathing when lying down, reported Jean McSweeney at the National Cardiovascular Health Conference, which was sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

McSweeney, who is a professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, is conducting two on-going studies of the early-warning symptoms experienced by women of different races, so physicians and women might better recognize they are on the path to a heart attack.

So far, McSweeney has data on 647 white, African-American and Hispanic women, all of whom were surveyed about their symptoms four months after they'd had a heart attack. By this time, many of the symptoms will have dissipated, making for more accurate reporting, McSweeney told Reuters Health.

The women ranged in age from 31 to 93, and one third had less than a high school education.

Many women reported a "change in thinking"--a symptom not mentioned in previous studies, she said. Twenty-four percent of white women and 33% of black women said they had some noticeable change in their thinking patterns.

McSweeney said that another indicator--discomfort--should also be looked at, even though it seems to be a vague symptom. It was not ranked as high on the symptom list as pain, but was definitely an early warning sign, she said.

In her survey, 36% of black women who had discomfort said they had it high in the center of their chest, compared to 24% of white women.

Thirty-three percent of African-American women who had discomfort reported that it was under the shoulder blade area, compared to 24% of whites. Many black women--38% --reported discomfort in the left arm or shoulder. Only 20% of white women with discomfort said it was in that area.

McSweeney hopes to eventually link the early-warning symptoms, known as "prodromal" symptoms, to risk factors like high blood pressure, being overweight or diabetes.

"Our initial analysis shows that co-morbidity [other illnesses] helps us predict who is going to have these prodromal symptoms," she said.

The first study, which will be of 515 primarily white women, should be completed by late May, and published this fall, said McSweeney. The study of 1,030 black and Latino women will not be finished until late 2003. Both are funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research.

Reference Source 89

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