Mayo Clinic study claims heart attack causes in women are often misdiagnosed

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A recent Mayo Clinic study reveals that many heart attacks in individuals under 65, particularly women, stem from nontraditional causes rather than clogged arteries. This challenges long-held beliefs about heart attack causes in younger populations. The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology , analyzed 15 years of data from the Rochester Epidemiology Project. It says more than half of heart attacks in women under 65 are due to factors like spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) and embolism, rather than artery-clogging plaque. While heart attacks are less common in women than men, doctors say their underlying causes are often misdiagnosed. Claire Raphael, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., an interventional cardiologist at