MELBOURNE – Women with heart disease are frequently underdiagnosed, undertreated, and underrepresented in clinical trials, and experience poorer outcomes both from inpatient and outpatient care.
Furthermore, while women have a tremendous amount of cardiovascular risk, they themselves are failing to recognize that heart disease is their No. 1 killer, Dr. Joanne M. Foody of Harvard Medical School, Boston, said at the World Congress of Cardiology 2014.
"The challenge is to ensure that women understand their risk, that the health care provider taking care of them understand their risk, and only by doing that can we really then impact their risk factors and treat them appropriately," said Dr. Foody, also director of the Pollin Cardiovascular Wellness Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.
Heart disease often presents differently in women than in men, with symptoms such as fatigue and breathlessness, which many women themselves would likely dismiss as just being part of a busy life.
While men tend to develop more focal plaques and narrowing of the arteries, women have smaller coronary arteries, even after body size is adjusted for, and therefore often have a more diffuse distribution of atherosclerosis.
"Women tend not to get that acute heart attack; they tend to have symptoms more related to small vessel disease which can lead to heart failure–like symptoms," she said.
Dr. Foody said that while the same cardiovascular risk factors apply to women and men, hormonal changes with menopause have a significant impact that is frequently underestimated by women and health care providers.
"Women undergo significant changes in their cholesterol levels, their blood pressure, and even their insulin resistance as they go through perimenopause and menopause, so it puts women at a unique transition point," Dr. Foody said. "Unfortunately, in women who were completely healthy and had no risk factors, that can change dramatically within the course of a couple of years."
Dr. Foody said that given the differences in presentation and treatment of heart disease in women, it is hardly surprising that women are more likely to die in the hospital, are more likely to experience reinfarction, and have a higher risk of heart failure, stroke, bleeding, and transfusion.
Women are also less likely to have an ECG performed within 10 minutes of hospital presentation, less likely to receive care from a cardiologist, and less likely to undergo diagnostic catheterization and revascularization procedures.
"These differences in care and in treatment can easily explain at least part of the disparities we see in outcomes for women," Dr. Foody said at the conference, which was sponsored by the World Heart Federation.
However, women themselves are also often more wary or skeptical of medication, Dr. Foody said, with evidence suggesting that married men are the most adherent to medication while married women are the least adherent.
Recent initiatives such as the global Go Red for Women and U.S.-based Screen Us campaigns were both aimed at raising awareness of heart disease among women and health care providers, but Dr. Foody said a system-level approach is required.
"That has to be coupled though with comparable programs that help inform health care providers, that help really put funding into appropriate screenings as well as appropriate research."
Dr. Foody said she had no relevant financial disclosures.