Higher mortality in women undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting
Tom Kai Ming Wang, Tharumenthiran Ramanathan, Ralph Stewart, Greg Gamble, Harvey White
Women undergoing heart surgery had 6 times the death rate of men at 30 days and 5 times at 1 year after surgery. This could be explained by women having smaller heart arteries. Women had more elevated blood pressure, more were smokers and women had more anginas suggesting that women would benefit from earlier screening for risk factors and earlier treatment. The NZ National Guidelines recommend cardiovascular risk screening at 55 years for women which is 10 years later than in men and 10 years later than breast cancer screening is funded, yet more women die from cardiovascular disease than from breast cancer. The authors recommend cardiovascular risk screening to be done at the same age as men and the need to raise the awareness of the importance of early detection and appropriate treatment of women with heart disease.
