Correction appended: In a previous version of this article, the headline incorrectly stated the cause of the risk of mortality.
A recent study conducted by researchers at the University’s Cardiovascular Center suggests that gender does not affect the risk of death during heart attack treatments, contrary to previous research conclusions.
In the study published in January, researchers observed 8,771 patients from 32 hospitals between 2003 and 2008. According to Elizabeth Jackson, assistant professor of internal medicine and the study’s lead author, findings also showed that women had higher rates of bleeding due to heart attacks that required transfusions and higher rates of vascular complications than men.
Jackson said because there have been beneficial changes in terms of medications and new interventions in heart attack treatment, she and her colleagues wanted to look at the potential for gender differences in heart attack treatment.
“What we found was after controlling for other factors such as age and other co-morbidities, the in-hospital mortality risk for men and women were the same,” Jackson said. “We also found women had higher rates of transfusions, or bleeding issues, and higher rates of vascular complications.”
Jackson explained that age and other risk factors have a large impact on heart attack mortality.
“Gender is certainly part of the story, but it’s not the whole story,” she said.
Past studies have shown that women with heart attacks had higher rates of mortality than men, but these differences were attributed to women generally being older, Jackson said. She noted that old age comes with increased coronary risk factors, which means that the women in the study were more likely to have diabetes or hypertension.
Increased chances for blood issues could suggest that women’s vascular disease is different for women because it may put them at a higher risk for vascular complications, Jackson said. She added that menopause may also be a factor responsible for the changes in women’s vessels.
Jackson said the study shows the need to explore the difference in heart attack management techniques for men and women. Because women were shown to have higher rates of vascular complications, Jackson said she and her colleagues may also need to look at changing on-site management of acute care in order to decrease risk of vascular complication.
She added that more research avenues need to be explored since women tend to develop heart disease later in life than men and are affected differently by risk factors like hypertension.
“We’ve only just begun to study. There’s still a lot out there that needs to be answered,” she said.
Jackson said in the future she would like to take her research a step further by determining if doctors should be performing different protocols or types of heart attack management for women.
By tailoring and personalizing cardiovascular care and prevention to a greater degree, Jackson said she could “do the greatest good for the greatest population.”