In Brief
Older Women Need Heart Attack Treatment Which Is Equal to Men’s Care
“Women who suffer a heart attack are more likely to survive if they receive the same invasive treatments as men do, a new study suggests.
“French researchers looked at more than 3,000 patients admitted to the hospital for heart attack and found that women were 57 percent less likely than men to undergo angiography, a procedure that identifies blocked arteries. Among patients with an especially serious form of heart attack called ST-elevation myocardial infarction, men were 72 percent more likely to receive clot-busting drugs and 24 percent more likely to undergo angioplasty, a procedure to reopen a blocked artery.
“In addition, the study authors noted, women were more likely than men to die during their initial hospital stay (9.7 percent versus 5 percent) and within a month of having a heart attack (12.4 percent versus 7 percent).”
Source: HealthDayNews/Business Week, March 16, 2010
