Cardiovascular disease leading cause of death in women ...

On the occasion of World Heart Day, the Cardiovascular Research Foundation-Institut de France wants to warn women about their cardiovascular risk often overlooked compared to their male counterparts, in a folder distributed to the press.
In industrialized countries, one in three women and one died of cardiovascular disease. Diseases of the heart and blood vessels are also seven times more deadly than breast cancer. Over the past decade, these diseases have been increasing, especially after age 60, but also among women of younger and younger, with a mortality rate of 10% among 25-44 year olds.

"These diseases are often mistakenly considered a male problem and many reports deplore any interest paid to the management of risk in women. A likely reason is that it is considered more protected than the rights through its hormones until menopause, with an age difference of 10 years between the two sexes on cardiac events, "laments Dr. Alain Simon of the Georges Pompidou European Hospital (HEGP) in Paris.

But women have gradually adopted the same lifestyle and risk behaviors than men, "smoking, alcohol consumption, lack of exercise and unhealthy diets, plus oral contraception, hormone therapy replacement, stress, and all conventional cardiovascular factors such as high cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure, weaken the hearts of women and that of earlier and earlier, "said Daniele Hermann, president of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation- Institut de France.

According to her, all these factors are not sufficiently monitored and female characteristics in cardiovascular risk are well known to the medical profession. Indeed, "female symptoms are not always the classic pain in the chest or arm, but can result in atypical manifestations such as fatigue, nausea, or difficulty breathing, making any complex diagnosis," warns Professor Michel Desnos HEGP.

In fact, he says, women have 20% less chance than men to be offered a test effort and 40% less angiography (imaging test to see any obstruction on feeder coronary arteries of the heart). Consequence of cardiac events in this population are more often fatal (5% against 43% for men), more women dying before their arrival at the hospital.

It is in this context that the Cardiovascular Research Foundation-Institut de France * launched the first research program on cardiovascular disease of women in order to improve the detection, understanding and support from the target .