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Women and men differ in heart disease traits and treatment.
2003 DEC 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A study led by researchers from the University of Michigan (U-M) Cardiovascular Center shows that women who suffer chest pain or a heart attack are more likely than men with the same conditions to have only mild and more diffuse blockages in their major arteries.
This means that for these individuals, their symptoms are most likely caused by blockages in smaller, less flexible vessels that aren't imaged. This may be why so many women leave the hospital without a firm diagnosis and with a less aggressive therapy regimen after experiencing acute heart symptoms.
But even when men and women with similar rates of heart attacks were compared, the women were less likely to get aggressive drug treatment, according to the new results from the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events that were presented on November 9, 2003, at the American Heart Association's (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2003.
While the study data "do show a bias against giving women more aggressive therapy," says Sujoya Dey, MD, the U-M cardiology fellow who led the analysis, the "findings also suggest the bias may be understandable, because women's coronary artery disease on average appears to be different. It's more likely to be diffuse, occurring in vessels too small for angiography, angioplasty, or bypass."
Explains Kim Eagle, MD, the senior author on the study and clinical director of the U-M Cardiovascular Center, "This actually may help debunk the theory that women are being offered less treatment because of bias based solely on their gender. The bias may stem from the disease."
And, he adds, "This means medical management, with aggressive drug therapy, becomes even more important for women. We still have a way to go on making sure both men and women get the drugs that can help them."
Coronary heart disease, which includes heart attack and angina, is the single leading cause of death among American women, killing 254,630 in the year 2000, according to AHA. About 210,000 women will have a heart attack in 2003, and angina affects 4.1 million women (compared with 2.5 million men). In all, 6.6 million American women alive today have a history of heart attack, angina, or both. But still, Dey and Eagle say women tend to think of heart disease as a man's problem.
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Source: HighBeam Research, Women and men differ in heart disease traits and treatment.