Women are more likely to die following heart-attack treatment than men, research has found. They are also less likely to have an angioplasty procedure, a study by the Paris Cardiovascular Research Centre discovered. Experts said this may be because women tend to be older when they suffer heart attacks, and also more likely to be diabetic.
But they suggested fewer females receiving angioplasty treatment – a procedure to widen blocked or narrowed coronary arteries to get the blood flowing to the heart – could be down to the “wrong attitude of physicians”.
A team analysed data on 11,420 people in the greater Paris area who suffered cardiac arrest while not in hospital. The pre-hospital survival rate for women was 18 per cent compared to 26 per cent of men, while angioplasty was performed on 26 per cent of women but 36 per cent of men.
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Professor Carlo Di Mario, team leader for complex coronary heart disease at the National Institute of Health Research, Cardiovascular Biomedical Research unit at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust in London, said: “When they have a heart attack, women are usually older and tend to be diabetic more often, both of which are important factors that increase mortality risk.
“These are obviously pre-existing conditions that cannot be changed even with better treatment. These factors are, however, unlikely to be the only reason for their higher mortality.”
“The medical community must still decide how much of this gender imbalance in angioplasty treatment is due to inherent characteristics within the female population or to the wrong attitude of physicians.”
