Heart research often not useful to women.

2003 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Although coronary heart disease (CHD) is the cause of more than 250,000 deaths in women each year, much of the research in the last 20 years on the diagnosis and treatment of CHD has either excluded women entirely or included only limited numbers of women and minorities.

As a result, many of the tests and therapies that are used to treat women for CHD are based on studies conducted predominantly in men.

Even in studies that include women, the published research often does not provide findings specific to women, according to two evidence reviews on CHD in women, conducted for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the U.S. National Institutes of Health's Office of Research on Women's Health by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco/Stanford Evidence-based Practice Center. Only 20% of the articles reviewed for this project provided separate findings on women.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which includes AHRQ, has been working to expand the involvement of women in research involving CHD. For example, the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute supports a wide range of clinical trials on heart disease that have included women, including large studies such as the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT) and the Atrial Fibrillation Follow-up Investigation of Rhythm Management (AFFIRM). In addition, the Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) study is investigating issues related to the specific symptoms of chest pain in women and the diagnosis of CHD. The NIH also has been working with scientific journals to encourage the publication of more research data specific to women.

In reviewing studies that did publish findings specific to gender or race/ethnicity, the researchers found that:

1) Fair or good evidence suggests that the use of diagnostic tests and treatments may differ by gender. Men are more likely than women to undergo diagnostic testing and treatment for CHD, but women are more likely to be treated for hypertension.