Women More Likely to Die from Myocardial Infarction Than Men

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121020162526.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2012) — Women are more likely to die from a myocardial infarction than men, according to research presented at the Acute Cardiac Care Congress 2012. The gender gap in mortality was independent of patient characteristics, revascularisation delays and revascularisation modalities. Women also had longer treatment delays, less aggressive treatment, more complications and longer hospital stays. The study was presented by Dr Guillaume Leurent from the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire in Rennes, France.

The Acute Cardiac Care Congress 2012 is the first annual meeting of the newly launched Acute Cardiovascular Care Association (ACCA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). It takes place during 20-22 October in Istanbul, Turkey, at the Istanbul Lufti Kirdar Convention and Exhibition Centre (ICEC).

"Previous studies on ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have shown that women have a worse prognosis, possibly due to longer management delays and less aggressive reperfusion strategies," said Dr Leurent. "Therefore we used data from ORBI, a prospective registry of 5,000 STEMI patients, to find out whether there were any gender differences in the management of STEMI."
The ORBI registry (Observatoire Régional Breton sur l'Infarctus du myocarde; Brittany regional observational study on myocardial infarction) has been ongoing since July 2006, and consists of STEMI patients admitted within 24 hours of symptom onset to the 9 interventional cardiology units in the Brittany region of France. The registry aims to assess the quality of management of acute myocardial infarction.