Genders Differences in Heart Disease
Reported July 10, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Some women taking high blood pressure medication to prevent heart disease may want to consider another course of action, according to a new study.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Western countries for both men and women, but a womans risk of developing the disease is significantly larger after menopause.
Women have a greater chance of dying of their first heart attack and from stroke, and they tend to have more cardiovascular problems later in life compared with men, Peter M. Okin, M.D., a cardiologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and lead researcher, was quoted as saying.
A recent study reveals a possible reason for this increased risk. Researchers followed a five-year follow-up of men and women treated with the high-blood pressure drugs losartan and atenolol for the reduction of left-ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). LVH is a condition that thickens and enlarges muscle of the hearts left ventricle. The condition is a marker for future heart disease because it makes the heart work harder than normal.
After studying electrocardiograms of 9,193 patients enrolled in a nationwide hypertension study, the researchers found the difference of LVH reduction between men and women significantly widened as time progressed. Women were 32 percent less likely than men to have a greater reduction of LVH according to one measure, and 15 percent less likely to have had any LVH regression based on a second measure.
Experts say this difference may play a part in hypertensive womens greater risk of heart disease later in life.
SOURCE: Hypertension, 2008;52:59-60