DALLAS (AP) - The symptoms of a heart attack might not mean the patient is really having one -- especially if the patient is younger than the usual heart-attack victim.
The American Heart Association says emergency room doctors need to ask younger patients with heart attack symptoms if they've recently used cocaine.
The drug can cause similar chest pain. It can also cause shortness of breath, anxiety, dizziness and heavy sweating -- more symptoms of a heart attack.
And it's a good idea for the patient to answer the cocaine question truthfully. For one thing, some heart attack treatments can be fatal to someone using cocaine.
The new guidelines appear in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
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