Coronary heart disease: an older woman's major health risk

摘要

Coronary heart disease is the major cause of death in postmenopausal women in many industrialised countries and will become epidemic in elderly women as the population ages unless preventive interventions across the lifespan are undertaken. Risk factors for coronary heart disease in older women must be evaluated and preventive measures instituted throughout a woman's lifetime. Mortality and morbidity after myocardial infarction and coronary revascularisation procedures are greater in women than in men. Characteristics and treatments likely to be associated with better outcomes in older women must be identified. Results from studies of the current earlier and more intensive evaluation of chest pain in women must be evaluated, and the role of postmenopausal hormone treatment in improving the long term outcomes of women with coronary heart disease must be assessed. Only when prospectively derived, contemporary, gender specific information becomes available will doctors be able to identify the diagnostic, treatment, and prognostic features specific to the coronary care of older women.