ON CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE AMONG WOMEN

Prevalence of the cardiovascular disease among women is on an impressive increase lastly –cardiovascular disease is, indeed, the main COD among women. Pursuant to the American Heart Association’s statistics 515,661 women died due to cardiovascular events in the States, in 2000, and 254,630 women undergo a severe AMI a year –be it as it may, a great majority of women fail to recognize cardiovascular symptoms. Such failure –i.e. not recognizing symptoms, is basically due to the fact that women are unaware of the cardiovascular disease prevalence among them. Surveys have shown that, among women, 50% identify cancer as the main health problem while only 13% mention the different types of cardiovascular diseases.

Some conditions exist that differentiate myocardial ischemia among women, as regards not only the diagnosis thereof but also the way treatment has to be dealt with –taking into account, for example, a more diffuse cardiovascular disease featuring smaller blood vessels, independently from the bodily surface, as well as a greater tendency to an endothelial malfunction as well as vascular spasms. As per a recent study, mortality caused by an acute myocardial infarctation has been 8,64% higher among women due to the fact that, among them, either the angiography rate or the percutaneous intervention rate is significantly lower than among men –irrelevant of patients’ age. Similarly, coronarography has led the percutaneous intervention to be performed more frequently among men than among women.

At the next SOLACI 2007 Congress we will be in a position to deepening our matters of interest, clarifying doubts, and updating our data on the topic of coronary disease and other aspects of this disease among women during the joint session with Fundación Cardiológica Argentina (The Argentine Cardiologic Foundation) on Wednesday, July 4, 2007.