IMAGINE Trial: Worse Outcomes For Women Than Men After CABG

Saskia Haitjema MD PhD candidate Division Heart and Lung, Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology University Medical Center UtrechtMedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Saskia Haitjema
MD PhD candidate
Division Heart and Lung, Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology
University Medical Center Utrecht

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Although cardiovascular diseases are often considered a disease of men, more women than men die each year of cardiovascular diseases. Sex-differences are increasingly being researched and acknowledged. For treatment and prognosis of coronary artery disease, however, many discrepancies exist between studies that investigated sex-differences. For example, it remains unclear whether the observed differences in the outcome after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) are due to a different risk burden between men and women or whether female sex is an independent risk factor.

In a group of 2553 patients followed up during a median of 2.5 years after CABG we found an increased risk for worse outcome in women versus men. We found a strong indication for female sex as an independent risk factor, but lacked power to definitively prove th

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Response: Sex-differences exist in cardiovascular diseases and cannot be ignored in treatment decisions that are made in everyday practice.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: Definite answers regarding sex-differences in long-term outcome after CABG should come from future pooling of studies comprising a larger number of women.

Citation:

Long-term outcome in men and women after CABG; results from the IMAGINE trial

den Ruijter, Hester M. et al.
Atherosclerosis
Published Online: February 23, 2015
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2015.02.039

 

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Saskia Haitjema MD PhD candidate (2015). IMAGINE Trial: Worse Outcomes For Women Than Men After CABG

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Last Updated on March 3, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD