30 Nov Women Older, With More Medical Conditions When First Heart Attack Diagnosed

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Ezekowitz

Justin A. Ezekowitz, MBBCh, MSc
Professor, Department of Medicine
Co-Director, Canadian VIGOUR Centre
Director, Cardiovascular Research, University of Alberta
Cardiologist, Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Are women older, sicker when they experience heart disease?

Response: Previous research looking at sex-differences in heart health has often focused on recurrent heart attack or death, however, the vulnerability to heart failure between men and women after heart attack remains unclear.

Our study includes all patients from an entire health system of over 4 million people and includes information not usually available in other analyses. Women were nearly a decade older and more often had a greater number of other medical conditions when they presented to hospital for their first heart attack, and were at greater risk for heart failure after the more severe type of heart attack (also known as a ST-elevation MI). This gap between men and women has started to narrow over time.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: We suspect that while there may be in part biological reasons for these differences, we also believe that access, treatment preferences and follow-up may also be playing a strong role. Clinicians (as well as all heart attack survivors and those wanting to prevent a first heart attack) should focus on better adherence to reducing cholesterol, controlling high blood pressure, getting more exercise, eating a healthy diet and stopping smoking.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: Future research should focus on identifying even more detailed factors associated with the development of heart failure, and for all patients, implementation science of interventions for both preventing heart disease in the first place but also prevention of heart failure in heart attack survivors.

Disclosures available at thecvc.ca

Citation:

Is There a Sex Gap in Surviving an Acute Coronary Syndrome or Subsequent Development of Heart Failure?
Justin A. Ezekowitz, Anamaria Savu, Robert C. Welsh, Finlay A. McAlister,
Shaun G. Goodman, and  Padma Kaul
Circulation. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.048015

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Last Updated on November 30, 2020 by Marie Benz MD FAAD