Men With Angina Face Significantly Poorer Outcomes

They face a doubled risk of heart attack, death from ischemic heart disease, all-cause mortality

09 aug 2009-- In patients newly diagnosed with angina, five-year outcomes are significantly worse among men than among women, according to a study published online Aug. 6 in BMJ.

Brian S. Buckley, Ph.D., from the National University of Ireland in Galway, and colleagues studied 1,785 patients (mean age, 62.3 years) who were diagnosed with angina between January 1998 and December 2001.

The researchers found that men had a significantly increased risk of acute myocardial infarction, death from ischemic heart disease, and all-cause mortality (hazard ratios, 2.01, 2.80, and 1.82, respectively). They also found that acute myocardial infarction after an angina diagnosis was associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality, which was not reduced by coronary artery bypass grafting or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

"Linked clinical datasets, such as the one described, provide important opportunities to study prognosis after an event quickly and cost effectively," the authors conclude. "Ideally, future studies of prognosis after a first episode of angina should focus on primary care; include patients who have been phenotyped after diagnostic tests such as coronary angiography; be able to look at the effects of different interventions (such as angioplasty without stenting, or with conventional stents or drug-eluting stents, and medical treatments); allow for the frequency and severity of angina symptoms and changes in treatments and risk factor profiles over time."

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