In the U.S., about 455,000 women and 410,000 men die from heart disease every year. However, women are more likely than men to die from a heart attack and be hospitalized for heart failure. Experts have proposed that there may be sex differences in heart disease. Now a review reports that up to 50 percent of women with heart disease have ischemic heart disease, rather than coronary heart disease typically seen in men.
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is a reduction of blood flow in the small arteries of the heart. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a reduction of blood flow in the major heart vessels.
The review, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, discussed gender differences in heart disease. Researchers from the Women's Heart Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, Emory Program in Cardiovacular Outcomes Research and Epidemiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, and University of Bologna, Italy reviewed published studies on sex differences in heart disease.
The researchers found that women are more likely than men to have blockage in the small arteries of the heart as opposed to the large arteries. These blocked small arteries are often not diagnosed because they're not visualized in a traditional angiogram (blood vessel X-ray). Women also present with different symptoms than men including shortness of breath, chest pressure and indigestion.
"We hypothesize that women experience more adverse outcomes compared with men because obstructive CAD remains the current focus of therapeutic strategies," the study authors write. "Continued research is indicated to devise therapeutic regimens to improve symptom burden and reduce risk in women with ischemic heart disease."
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