Women with AMI are more likely than men to present with “atypical” symptoms (see Signs and Symptoms/Clinical
Presentation, below); just 50% of women with AMI present with chest pain and women tend to delay seeking
treatment compared with men. AMI must be differentiated from heart failure, anxiety, aortic stenosis or dissection,
esophageal spasm or biliary colic, musculoskeletal or neurologic chest wall pain, pneumonia, and pericarditis.
Complications of AMI in women include recurrent or persistent chest pain, left ventricular aneurysm, stroke, heart
failure, thromboembolism, cardiac dysrhythmias, cardiac arrest, and death. Women presenting with AMI have a
higher risk of death and other complications than men presenting with AMI. The prognosis for women with AMI
varies and depends largely on the size, type, severity, and location of infarct and the amount of remaining functional
cardiac muscle. In general, prognosis worsens with increasing age and the presence of arrhythmias or major chronic
concomitant illnesses (e.g., diabetes mellitus [DM]) and improves with appropriate use of β-blockers or lipid-lowering
medications.