Female heart-attack care faulted

[azmouse]

Quote:Women having heart attacks are less likely than men to get immediate treatment and more likely to die in the hospital, says a groundbreaking new study that tracked more than 1.1 million patients.

Women are less likely to get immediate treatment to stop the heart attack in its tracks: clot-busting drugs, balloon procedures to open the arteries or bypass surgery, the study says. Partly because of such delays, 15 percent of female heart-attack patients die in the hospital, compared with 10 percent of men. Delaying care can be fatal.

"Time is muscle," says study author John Canto of the Watson Clinic and Lakeland Regional Medical Center in Florida. "And muscle is life."

The study actually may underestimate the gender gap because many female heart attacks never make it to the hospital, says Cam Patterson, chief of cardiology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the study.

Women are less likely to be properly treated, even when they have similar symptoms to men, according to the analysis in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, which included patients from 1994 to 2006


Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2...z1n7fY7WhC

This quote from a doctor at the end of the article really stood out to me: "When I ask my wife what is she most afraid of, she says breast cancer. And yet she is six times more likely to die of a heart attack. We have a desperate message to share about the risk of heart disease."

I'll never say I'm not worried about breast cancer or other female cancers but not one single woman in my family has ever gotten those types of cancer. OTOH, heart disease has killed many in my family and at a young age. My grandmother and my father died at 60, and my older brother died 4 years ago at only 51. All died of massive heart failure.
It's why I'm doing my best to take care of my health. I hope all women will take notice of the risks of heart disease and get the care they need.

[Treestar]

That the research on women and heart attacks is not developed the way it is for men.

Though I have to admit, great strides have been made regarding breast cancer. I recall the difference between a relative who had it in the 80s and one who has it now.

[jaxx]

Very true. And ER doctors tend to check last for a heart attack in women. That needs to change immediately.

[Dimwitted Fool]

there was some discussion of how many women don't realize they are having a heart attack. Symptoms are often different than the ones described for men and women aren't aware of how common heart problems are for them.

Seems like a lot of education is needed all around.

[NJMaverick]

is that this study ended in 2006. I can tell you medicine has improved on this issue since then and certainly since the start of the study in 1994

[jaxx]

I had a heart attack in late 2007 and the ER doctor bit is what I saw. He was a dope. I had to ask for an EKG and then he was all business....."you realize this is heart?". I told him yes, why didn't he know.
Now I have a stent.