"Our findings suggest there might be need for heart-health resources specifically aimed at women,” said lead author Kshipra Hemal, PhD.
The Duke study, called the Prospective Multicenter Imaging Study for Evaluation of Chest Pain (PROMISE), included more than ten thousand patients, equally male and female, with suspected coronary heart disease, with the pending diagnosis being their first of the condition.
In addition to the contrasting observations included in the infographic, the study showed that essentially equal amounts of men and women in the study complained of chest pain during the initial meeting with their physician. In addition, although women more more likely than men to report issues like depression, sedentary lifestyle, and family history of heart disease, apparently “commonly used predictor models” did not include these factors.
PROMISE was one of the first studies to focus on the diagnosis and risk assessment differences between men and women without an existing diagnosis of heart disease.
"Establishing a diagnosis is arguably more difficult among these patients,” said senior author Pamela Douglas, MD. “Our findings should help clarify that there are differences between men and women that we need to take into account."
The study was recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Imaging.
Source: Duke University Medical Center