Sex differences in pathophysiology of heart disease

Nursing

Differences between Men and Women in Relation to the Pathophysiology in Heart Disease

Heart disease is the nation's number one killer of both men and women. However, it can present warning signs that are so dissimilar in women than in men that heart disease in women may be misdiagnosed or missed completely. The death rate from ischemic heart disease in women is higher than it is in men. Some research has suggested that adjusted for age, size and other factors, women have almost two times greater risk of death than do men. Even when heart disease is acknowledged in women, they have an elevated rate of death after a heart attack and a higher rate of unfavorable events following treatment than men. This has led some doctors to now view coronary artery disease as a gender precise condition that necessitates dissimilar testing and treatment plans, rather than the customary standardized approach (Braunstein, 2010).

There is an extensive false impression that heart disease is a man's disease. But heart disease is also a disturbing health trouble for women. In fact, heart disease, which can lead to heart attack, is the leading cause of death for American women. Nearly five hundred thousand women will every year from cardiovascular disease which is almost double the number of deaths caused by all types of cancer. A woman is more than ten times as likely to die of cardiovascular disease as she is to die of breast cancer. This is partially due to the fact that the survival rate for breast cancer is quite high, whereas over forty percent of women do not live through their first heart attack (Ricciotti, 2012).

Women's hearts are different from men's hearts. This area of study is quite new, and research is in progress to further look at differences in the physiology and pathophysiology of women's hearts. It is well-known that women have smaller hearts and smaller arteries than men. Some researchers from Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Hospital have concluded that women have a dissimilar fundamental rhythmicity to the pacemaker of their hearts, which causes them to beat quicker. These same researchers think that it may take a woman's heart longer to rest after each beat. Some surgeons have also conjectured that the fact that women have a fifty percent greater possibility of dying during heart surgery than men. It is believed that this is related to some basic dissimilarity in women's the way women's hearts work (Ricciotti, 2012).

Women are just as liable to have a heart attack as men, but the fact that they are more apt to die after their first heart attack may be because the signs of a heart attack are different in women. Doctors and patients frequently point chest pains in women to non-cardiac causes, leading to a misdiagnosis of their condition. Men generally experience crushing chest pain during a heart attack. Women may have a larger inclination to have pain just under the breastbone, or complain of abdominal pain, heartburn, trouble breathing, sickness and mysterious exhaustion. Women are consequently easily misdiagnosed of indigestion, gall bladder disease, or even an anxiety attack. The probability of misdiagnosing a heart attack in women is also augmented by the fact that women tend to have heart attacks later in life, when they frequently have other diseases that can mask heart attack symptoms (Ricciotti, 2012).