Coronary artery disease in women

The past three decades have seen coronary artery disease investigated almost exclusively in men. Data about this disease in women come from the longitudinal Framingham study and mortality statistics. According to the Framingham study, angina is more often the first symptom of coronary disease in women, while for men it is more often myocardial infarction. Post menopausal women are two to three times more likely to have a heart attack than premenopausal. Forty per cent of female cardiac patients versus 13% of men suffered a second heart attack. Sudden death, a frequent manifestation of coronary disease in men, occurs rarely in women until old age. Women aged 35 to 64 years were more vulnerable to risk factors of systolic blood pressure, blood glucose and excess weight than men. Cigarette smoking, highly correlated in men, was not a significant risk factor in women. The greater the number of risk factors, the greater the risk of developing coronary artery disease. Central or truncal obesity is associated with higher blood pressure and hyperinsulinemia which is thought to result in increases in atherogenic lipoproteins and decreases in high density lipoprotein cholesterol.