Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Women and Heart Attacks

“The gender gap is alive and unwell in heart disease, a new international study finds, with women differing from men on everything from symptoms to treatment in both heart attack and severe chest pain. One of the most striking findings was that women were twice as likely as men to have "normal" or "mild" results on an exam of their heart's blood vessels, with no single blockage taking up more than 50 percent of any one blood vessel. This was despite the fact that their other test results showed they were definitely having a heart attack, or a form of chest pain called unstable angina. In all, among patients with the same level of coronary artery disease, women were significantly less likely than men to receive drugs called beta blockers, statins and ACE inhibitors - all of which are considered crucial to preventing further heart episodes. And no matter how serious their blockages, women were less likely to receive an angioplasty or a stent to open up their blood vessels. By six months after their heart attack or angina attack, women with more advanced coronary artery disease were more likely than men to have died, or to have suffered another heart attack, a stroke or another problem that sent them to the hospital. Only through improvements in diet and exercise habits, quitting smoking, controlling blood pressure and blood sugar, and using medication when needed, will people with non-obstructive disease keep themselves from progressing to worse problems, says Jackson, who is part of the Women's Heart Program at U-M. ‘We need a more comprehensive, whole-body approach to prevention,’ she says.”

http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Women_s_Health_260/Women_and_Heart_Attack.shtml

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