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By Kirsten Houmann, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent
ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Although heart attack kills an equal number of men and women in the hospital, new research shows women are twice as likely to die if hospitalized for severe heart attack.
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After researchers analyzed data from the American Heart Associations Get With the Guidelines program, they found women admitted with a severe heart attack called ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) were twice as likely to die within the first 24 hours of hospitalization as men.
We think part of the reason this happens is that theres a longer time from when women get to the emergency room to when they get their treatment, and thats partially because women dont recognize that the symptoms theyre having are cardiac, Malissa Wood, M.D., Co-Director of the Womens Heart Health Program at the Mass General Hospital Heart Center in Boston, who was not affiliated with the study, told Ivanhoe. In many cases, women may stay home for a long period of time before they even come to the emergency room.
The study shows some of the fault falls on health care professionals. Researchers found some treatments recommended for heart attack were delayed and underused in women. Among other differences, women were 14 percent less likely to receive early aspirin, 13 percent less likely to receive surgery within 90 minutes of hospital arrival, and 25 percent less likely to receive reperfusion therapy -- or techniques to restore blood flow to damaged heart muscle -- than men.
Dr. Wood said another problem contributing to the gender gap is that emergency room physicians dont always interpret neck and back pain in women as heart attack symptoms. She also said its important for women to understand their risk of heart disease so they get to the hospital quickly if they suffer a heart attack.
Every woman needs to know their numbers, Dr. Wood said.
Those numbers are blood pressure, body mass index (BMI) and levels of good and bad cholesterol.
SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Malissa Wood, M.D.; Circulation, published online Dec. 8, 2008
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