Diagnosis and Treatment of Heart Disease: Are Women Different From Men?

Circulating ACE is a predictor of weight loss maintenance not only in overweight and obese women, but also in men

“…Furthermore, we found that the prediction power of ACE is influenced by some immunoproteins in the blood, including fibrinogen. 14 As profound sex differences exist in weight regulation, fat storage, body fat distribution, metabolism and obesity, 16 as well as in the renin --angiotensin --aldosterone system, 17,18 we postulated that there might be a sex difference in the prediction by ACE for the weight change during the weight maintenance period. Therefore, we decided to investigate whether ACE also acted as a predictor of weight loss maintenance in male participants of the Diogenes project.…”

Cardiovascular disease among diabetic women with bilateral oophorectomy.

“…In addition, women undergoing exercise stress tests tend to have lower functional capacity which limits the induction of myocardial ischemia and in turn decreases the diagnostic ability of the standard exercise stress test to detect CAD (28). All these factors also limit the use of stress echocardiogram in women, necessitating the use of non-imaging tests to detect vascular obstruction (28,30,109). Furthermore, complimenting standard exercise stress testing with other specialized diagnostic instruments such as myocardial perfusion Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) or dobutamine stress echocardiography, which all have relatively higher specificity, may aid in better diagnosis and prediction of future adverse events in women, but at an added expense (28,30).…”

“…Rather, their pain may be located in the right arm associated with fatigue, abdominal pain, nausea, sweating and shortness of breath (27,30,110). Women who experience signs and symptoms of angina and MI tend to delay seeking medical care, and when they do may not be evaluated as aggressively as men, or may be misdiagnosed (27,30). Women respond to CHD treatment drugs differently than men, and have more adverse drug reaction (29,30).…”

“…Women who experience signs and symptoms of angina and MI tend to delay seeking medical care, and when they do may not be evaluated as aggressively as men, or may be misdiagnosed (27,30). Women respond to CHD treatment drugs differently than men, and have more adverse drug reaction (29,30). This is further compounded by the hindering of inclusion, if not exclusion, of women from clinical drug trials.…”

“…Women account for only 33% of the 1.2 million coronary interventions performed annually nationwide (28). Additionally, women are less likely than men to receive the recommended cardiovascular standards of care (29), undergo extensive evaluation of cardiac symptoms (30) and be prescribed common prevention pharmaceutical agents (such as aspirin, beta blockers, heparin, statins) (31). They also receive delayed thrombolytic therapy (31).…”