The world’s four major cardiovascular health organizations have jointly announced new standardized guidelines for defining and diagnosing heart attacks, representing what experts describe as a significant procedural overhaul. The agreement was unveiled at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual congress in Munich and addresses longstanding disparities in how certain types of heart attacks are classified and treated.
Historically, less common forms of heart attacks that predominantly affect women have been coded as lower priority, resulting in delayed or ineffective treatment that did not always address the specific underlying cause. Women experiencing these conditions often faced extended waits for care and received therapies that sometimes worsened their condition rather than improving it. The new guidelines specifically target three types of heart attacks that occur up to 10 times more frequently in women: coronary artery spasm, coronary embolism, and spontaneous coronary artery dissection, the last of which occurs in approximately 80% of cases in women.
A key change involves adjusting diagnostic thresholds for troponin, a protein released when the heart is damaged. Previously, women were required to reach the same blood troponin levels as men to receive a heart attack diagnosis, a standard that the new guidelines will modify. The updated categories will reclassify the most serious cases as “primary” heart attacks rather than the previous “type 1” designation, helping to ensure more women receive appropriate urgent care.
Prof. Nicholas Mills, the cardiologist who led the international taskforce developing the guidelines, emphasized the significance of achieving global consensus on heart attack classification for the first time. Officials from the organizations involved, including Britain’s Heart Foundation, described the changes as transformative for patient care and noted that implementation of these guidelines across emergency departments worldwide should help eliminate unintended biases that have historically disadvantaged women seeking cardiac care.
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