Shocking Cardiovascular Disease Misdiagnosis Facts

Recently, a study has been done on medical malpractice cases, specifically a misdiagnosis of cardiovascular disease. When left untreated, it could result in serious health issues. Though a medical malpractice of any case can be tragic, researchers found that the misdiagnosis of this disease has a shockingly high number of misdiagnoses compared to other cases, most of which result in worse health problems than other misdiagnoses in general.

Researchers looked at 251 closed cases in which patients determined that the doctor who treated them in an outpatient setting missed a cardiovascular diagnosis. What the researchers found was that the majority of patients with missed outpatient coronary artery disease had original diagnoses that were either nonspecific or similar to other diseases, despite the high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among the patients. What was relatively surprising in this is that physicians are not just missing the harder diagnoses—they are missing the easier ones, too. Essentially, some of the patients were at higher risk for cardiac disease, and the physicians looked over the risks most of the time, which led to a misdiagnosis. 

What this research suggests is that patients who are at a higher risk for cardiac disease should be tested for such, or at least consider it as a possibility. These patients who are at a higher risk are ones who commonly use tobacco products, those who have previously had cardiac disease, or those who have diabetes. The research was done in attempt to lower the rate of misdiagnosis in the future, and to provide doctors with some simple insight that could save them from making such a simple mistake.

A misdiagnosis is nothing to mess with. If you or a loved one has suffered as a result of a misdiagnosis, contact our offices today to schedule a consultation.