10 Mar Menopausal Hormone Therapy Linked To Favorable Cardiac Profile
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Sanghvi
Mihir Sanghvi
Academic Junior Doctor
Barts Health NHS Trust
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The effect of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT), previously known as hormone replacement therapy, on cardiovascular health in post-menopausal women remains controversial and unclear. Extensive observational data had suggested MHT to be cardioprotective, leading to MHT being routinely prescribed for both primary and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD). However, subsequent data from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) and Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS) studies cast doubt on the beneficial cardiovascular effects of MHT; this was reflected in learned societies’ clinical guidance concerning MHT’s role in CHD prevention. The most recent randomised trial data on the subject arose from the Danish Osteoporosis Prevention Study, which indicated that women taking menopausal hormone therapy had a reduced risk of the composite endpoint of mortality, heart failure and myocardial infarction but the study has been subject to criticism [10]. In more recent work, again from the WHI, there was no difference in cardiovascular mortality in MHT users compared to placebo, although the authors themselves state that cause-specific mortality data should be interpreted “cautiously”.
The UK Biobank is an ongoing, large-scale, population-based study designed to examine determinants of health in middle and old age. Besides extensive collection of health questionnaire data, biological samples and physical measurements, it has incorporated cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging – the gold standard for analysis of cardiac structure and function – to provide detailed imaging phenotypes. At present, there is a paucity of data on the effects of menopausal hormone therapy on left ventricular (LV) and left atrial (LA) volumes and function, alterations in which are markers of subclinical cardiovascular disease and have prognostic implications.
We found that in a large, population-based cohort of post-menopausal women free of cardiovascular disease, use of menopausal hormone therapy is not associated with adverse, subclinical changes in cardiac structure and function.
Indeed, we demonstrate significantly smaller LV and LA chamber volumes which have been linked to favorable cardiovascular outcomes in other settings.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: The impact of menopausal hormone therapy on the cardiovascular system is an area of research which remains conflicted and controversial. This study utilies a novel way to assess the effect of menopausal hormone therapy on the heart and reassuringly, we demonstrate that MHT does not have any major, obvious adverse impact on cardiac structure and function.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work?
Response: Future work will focus upon linkage o fmenopausal hormone therapy use and CMR parameters to cardiovascular outcome data.
Disclosures: This study was funded by the British Heart Foundation and used data from the UK Biobank.
Citations:
The impact of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) on cardiac structure and function: Insights from the UK Biobank imaging enhancement study.
Mihir M. Sanghvi,Nay Aung,Jackie A. Cooper,José Miguel Paiva,Aaron M. Lee,Filip Zemrak,Kenneth Fung,Ross J. Thomson,Elena Lukaschuk,Valentina Carapella,Young Jin Kim,Nicholas C. Harvey,Stefan K. Piechnik,Stefan Neubauer,Steffen E. Petersen
PLOS One Published: March 8, 2018
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Last Updated on March 10, 2018 by Marie Benz MD FAAD