 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 "Improvements in procedure account for most of the gain in women," said Dr. Robert F. Wilson, a professor of interventional cardiology at the University of Minnesota, and co-author of an accompanying editorial. "One is the use of stents, because the results with stenting are better."
Stents are flexible tubes inserted after angioplasty to help keep arteries open.
"Also, anticoagulation has improved tremendously," Wilson said. "Women in general are more prone to bleeding complications, and our understanding of anticoagulation has improved over 10 years. We don't give as much of the drugs, and we have better drugs to give."
Text Continues Below
While the American Heart Association had to issue a 2005 statement saying that PCI was as helpful for women as men, "there is a growing consensus that it is as effective in women as in men," Wilson said.
Age accounts for much of the higher toll, and "heart disease tends to develop later in women, which is partly related to their hormonal condition," he said. "After menopause, the disease takes off."
The new report backs the findings of a study done in Pennsylvania several years ago, said Christopher Hollenbeak, an associate professor of surgery and public health sciences at Penn State University. That study, which he led, looked at data on more than 31,000 state residents who had PCI in 2000.
"The same conclusions they reached, we reached as well," Hollenbeak said. "When you control for the risk factors, much of the difference in outcomes goes away. Of course, we used one-year data, from 2000, and over time, physicians are changing the way they practice."
More information
Background on PCI for women is offered by the Cleveland Clinic.
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2
|
.gif)
