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Women's Cardiovascular Healthcare Foundation
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Treatment of heart attacks in women: progress, but room for improvement

The results of a French study based on the Lille, Strasbourg and Toulouse cardiac accident morbidity registers show an improvement in the management of heart attacks between 2006 and 2016. However, gender differences persist.

Treatment of heart attacks in women: progress, but room for improvement

Dr Marie Moitry, one of the study's investigators, ambassador for Agir pour le Cœur des femmes and public health physician at Strasbourg University Hospital, reports on the main findings.

Teams from the French ischemic heart disease registries studied changes in the clinical presentation and management of inaugural heart attacks between 2006 and 2016 in men and women aged 35 to 74.
While infarct management has improved overall, women are still less likely than men to receive revascularization treatment aimed at urgently unclogging their heart vessels (coronary arteries): in 2016, 61% of women received this procedure, compared with 79% of men. Similarly, antiplatelet drugs, lipid-lowering statins and cardiac rehabilitation are still prescribed more frequently to men than to women, irrespective of other factors. Nevertheless, these disparities do not appear to influence vital prognosis: no significant difference in mortality at 28 days and 1 year was detected between the two sexes.
It is also important to note that in 10 years, the age gap at first heart attack between men and women has narrowed considerably, and the differences in symptoms observed between the two sexes have also disappeared. The increase in female smoking in the second half of the twentieth century, particularly among women now aged between 55 and 64, could explain this rejuvenation.
It is therefore essential to redouble our efforts to raise awareness of women's heart attacks among healthcare professionals, and our fight against smoking, both of which are essential to improving women's health.

 
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