Understanding a woman's heart: Lessons from 14 177 women with acute coronary syndrome

• Published in: Revista portuguesa de cardiologia 2020-02, Vol.39 (2), p.57-72
• Main Authors: Roque, David, Ferreira, Jorge, Monteiro, Sílvia, Costa, Marco, Gil, Victor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acute coronary syndrome; Acute Coronary Syndrome - complications; Acute Coronary Syndrome - diagnosis; Acute Coronary Syndrome - mortality; Acute Coronary Syndrome - therapy; Adult; Aged; Cardiovascular Agents - therapeutic use; Female; Heart Disease Risk Factors; Hospital Mortality; Hospitalization; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Mulher; Myocardial Revascularization - statistics & numerical data; Portugal; Retrospective Studies; Sex Factors; Síndroma coronária aguda; Women
• ISSN: 0870-2551; 2174-2030; 2174-2049
• DOI: 10.1016/j.repc.2020.03.002

Coronary artery disease is becoming the leading cause of death in women in Western society. However, the available data shows that women are still underdiagnosed and undertreated with guideline-recommended secondary prevention therapy, leading to a significantly higher rate of in-hospital complications and in-hospital mortality. The main objective of this work is to assess the approach to acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in Portugal, including form of presentation, in-hospital treatment and in-hospital complications, according to gender and in three different periods. We performed an observational study with retrospective analysis of all patients included between 2002 and 2019 in the Portuguese Registry of Acute Coronary Syndromes (ProACS), a voluntary, observational, prospective, continuous registry of the Portuguese Society of Cardiology and the National Center for Data Collection in Cardiology. A total of 49 113 patients (34 936 men and 14 177 women) were included. Obesity, hypertension, diabetes (p