What is coronary artery disease?

The coronary arteries supply the heart muscle with oxygen. When they become narrowed due to deposits, doctors refer to this as coronary artery disease (CAD). CHD is the main cause of a heart attack. In this case, the oxygen supply to the heart is completely blocked by the narrowing. The heart muscle, or parts of it, is damaged to such an extent that it is subsequently no longer able to pump sufficient blood through the body. This is known as heart failure, a secondary disease of CHD that has serious consequences.

However, if signs of such narrowing are detected and treated early, damage to the heart muscle can often be averted. The deposits develop in the course of life due to various risk factors.

The good news is that a dangerous narrowing of the heart arteries can be detected and remedied by means of a preventive examination. Thanks to the high reliability of the Cardio Explorer, screening is worthwhile for both women and men.

Not all heart attacks are the same - Here's how symptoms differ between the sexes

The current state of science knows; women are different from men. Also in the risk of coronary heart disease. For example, women have different symptoms than men when they experience precursors to a heart attack or actually suffer a heart attack. Heart attack symptoms in women are very diffuse and clearly differentiated from those in men. Thus, women may experience symptoms such as:

- Shortness of breath / shortness of breath

- Nausea

- Vomit

- Sweating

- Back pain

- Pain in the upper abdomen

- Pulling in the arms

- Unexplained fatigue

- Depressions

In men, on the other hand, the heart attack usually announces itself with the typical familiar complaints, such as severe pain and pressure in the left chest or behind the breastbone, radiating to the shoulder and left arm.  

Heart attack: women have different risks

Because women more often complain of atypical symptoms, it is not uncommon for cardiovascular risk to be underestimated, which in turn then leads to delayed diagnosis and treatment. Since the disease is often not properly diagnosed in women, there is hesitant prescribing behavior on the part of physicians and less frequent, more restrained utilization of therapeutic options.

Cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and smoking are equally prevalent in women and men. But these traditional heart attack risk factors may have a different impact on overall risk in women. Especially when hormonal differences and influences are taken into account.

For example, taking oral contraceptives ("the pill") can lead to increased blood pressure. Diabetes occurring during pregnancy (gestational diabetes) increases the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Artificial intelligence finds patterns and ranks individual risk for coronary heart disease

With the Cardio Explorer Check-Up, patients can easily calculate their CHD risk. The non-invasive test procedure delivers results that are comparable to the best imaging methods in terms of accuracy. This means that narrowing of the coronary arteries can be reliably detected and treated in good time. Interested parties can have the Cardio Explorer Check-Up performed in various practices in Switzerland and Germany.

Learn more about the Cardio Explorer Check-up

All that is required is a short visit to the doctor, which takes 15 minutes. In addition to taking a blood sample, the doctor measures blood pressure and records various data such as weight and height. Together with the blood values, the doctor then enters all the data into the Cardio Explorer input mask. The AI-based algorithm calculates the individual risk for the current presence of a life-threatening narrowing of the heart arteries (stenosis) - with high precision within a few seconds. In a personal phone call or e-mail, the patient receives his results and the recommendation for further measures.

More information about Cardio Explorer

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