Heart disease in women worse than previously thought
23 March 2006
Angina, a common form of heart disease, is more dangerous for women than was previously thought, according to a new study published in the 'Journal of the American Medical Association'.
Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Professor Harry Hemingway and colleagues studied over 100,000 patients aged 45-89 years with angina using electronic health records. They found that each year, two women out of every 100 in the general population developed angina, as the first sign of heart disease. This makes angina much more common than heart attacks (the risks of which are usually measured per 1,000 population).
The study also found that for women, the diagnosis of angina is less frequently confirmed with tests, such as angiograms or treadmill exercise electrocardiograms.Ìý In the patients in the study, drug treatment aimed at relieving angina (nitrates) was prescribed solely on the basis of symptom history.ÌýÌý
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