Getting to the heart of the matter: Women face cardiovascular risks

Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death among women. Physicians are urged to return to the basics to stop this killer.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. June 5, 2006.

Cardiovascular disease kills nearly twice as many women each year as does cancer, yet annual mammograms and Pap smears continue to be an easier sell than lipid profiles or regular blood pressure tests.

Despite years of warnings that women face an even greater risk for cardiovascular disease than men, the word has been slow to filter out. Women and their physicians still don't always acknowledge this threat, nor do they take steps to slow its onset, according to many experts. "It is really important to keep educating patients and physicians about this being such a devastating illness for women," said Norma Keller, MD, chief of cardiology at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention illuminate the problem. In 2003, 484,000 women died from cardiovascular disease compared with 427,000 men. Cancer, the next highest killer disease for women, claimed 268,000 lives that same year.

The challenge for primary care physicians is to pick out women most likely to benefit from treatment, said Lori Mosca, MD, MPH, PhD, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and chair of the panel that drafted the American Heart Assn.'s Evidence-based Guidelines for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Women. "It is clear we are undertreating very high-risk women and that there are many low-risk women who would be better served by lifestyle changes than drug therapy."

So how to determine which group is which? Go back to the basics, she advises.