Doctors are misdiagnosing some cases of heart failure that disproportionately attack women, especially elderly women, and those with high blood pressure and diabetes risk factors, say Toronto researchers reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine. This form of heart failure is called "preserved" ejection fraction heart failure.
It does not show up on EKG tests or x-rays.
Another group reporting in the same journal found that this type of heart failure now accounts for more than half of heart-failure cases.
"It causes the same symptoms as traditional heart failure, such as weakness, shortness of breath, swollen ankles and legs and fluid buildup in the lungs, so that people feel as if they are drowning. But because it doesn't look like classic heart failure, where the heart grows big and baggy, the condition can be misdiagnosed."
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