WP: A Gender Difference In Heart Disease: Variant in Women Hard to Detect

[DeepModem Mom]

A Gender Difference In Heart Disease
Variant in Women Called Hard to Detect

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 1, 2006; Page A08


Many women suffer from a form of heart disease that is fundamentally different from the type that strikes most men and is easily missed by standard tests, researchers reported yesterday.

Instead of developing obvious blockages in the arteries supplying blood to the heart, these women accumulate plaque more evenly inside the major arteries and in smaller blood vessels, the researchers found. In other cases, their arteries fail to expand properly or go into spasm, often at times of physical or emotional stress.

These abnormalities, which appear to be particularly common in younger women, can be as dangerous as the better-known form of the disease, strangling vital blood flow to the heart muscle, causing severe and sometimes debilitating pain and fatigue, and sometimes triggering life-threatening heart attacks, the researchers found.

The findings may help explain why some women suddenly have heart attacks even though their arteries look clear, in some cases leading doctors to send them home without treatment or refer them to psychiatrists. Their symptoms are often unusual: Instead of the classic crushing chest pain, sweating and shortness of breath, they often complain of vague symptoms -- fatigue, an upset stomach, or pain in the jaw or shoulders.

Even when they do get medical attention, these women may not benefit from standard drugs and therapies, such as bypass surgery and angioplasty to reopen clogged arteries, the researchers said....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/AR2006013101407.html

[rodeodance]

1. It has been a well know fact that women have smaller vessels--and it

is now jest accuring to them now!!!!!!!? geech

[noonwitch]

2. We've made so many cardiac advances over the past 25 years

The scientists/doctors are now getting to the point where they can pinpoint individual population groups and their unique risk factors. When I was a kid, most people I knew who had heart attacks died either initially or shortly afterwards. It's amazing to me that heart surgery is now less risky than many procedures previously considered routine.

The point may have been taken a while ago, but still it takes years to do the research and be able to definitively state a fact that seems obvious when announced.

Although, when I think about it, it is amazing that we have made all these medical advances yet still haven't found a way to ensure that all americans have access to medical treatment.