Young women after MI have a 2-fold likelihood of developing MSIMI compared with men and a similar increase in conventional stress ischemia. Microvascular dysfunction and peripheral vasoconstriction with mental stress are implicated in MSIMI among women but not among men, perhaps reflecting women's proclivity toward ischemia because of microcirculatory abnormalities.

Objectives Emotional stress may disproportionally affect young women with ischemic heart disease. We sought to examine whether mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia (MSIMI), but not exercise-induced ischemia, is more common in young women with previous myocardial infarction (MI) than men. Methods We studied 98 post-MI patients (49 women and 49 men) aged 38-60 years. Women and men were matched for age, MI type, and months since MI. Patients underwent [99mTc]sestamibi perfusion imaging at rest, after mental stress, and after exercise/pharmacological stress. Perfusion defect scores were obtained with observer-independent software. A summed difference score (SDS), the difference between stress and rest scores, was used to quantify ischemia under both stress conditions. Results Women aged 50 or younger, but not older women, showed a more adverse psychosocial profile than age-matched men, but did not differ for conventional risk factors and tended to have less angiographic coronary artery disease (CAD). Compared with age-matched men, women aged 50 or younger exhibited a higher SDS with mental stress (3.1 vs. 1.5, p=0.029) and had twice the rate of MSIMI (SDS ≥3), 52% vs. 25%, while ischemia with physical stress did not differ (36% vs 25%). In older patients there were no sex differences in MSIMI. The higher prevalence of MSIMI in young women persisted when adjusting for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, CAD severity and depression. Conclusions MSIMI post-MI is more common in women aged 50 or younger compared to age-matched men. These sex differences are not observed in post-MI patients who are older than 50 years.