Catheterization Not The Ideal Treatment For All Women: Study

While all men reap positive results from cardiacdefine catheterization, an invasive procedure adopted to clear potential heart blockages, the treatment might prove beneficial for only those women who are having a heart attack. However, the treatment when undertaken on women experiencing unstable angina - less severe heart damage – might actually higher the risk of heart attack or death after catheterization, analysis shows.

The study conducted by the researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston is the largest done till date to analyze the benefits reaped from the procedure, gender wise. The findings feature in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

For the current study, the researchers incorporated past eight studies that included nearly 3,000 women and over 7,000 men. All participants had suffered a heart attack or chest pain and had received either the invasive treatment or only medicines.

The high-risk women (those with clear signs and symptoms of a heart attack) who underwent cardiacdefine catheterization reported 33 percent reduced chances of dying, experiencing any more heart attacks or being re-hospitalized with acute coronary syndrome (chest pain accompanied with symptoms) compared to those who were discharged only on a prescription list.

However, the invasive treatment when undertaken on the lower-risk category women (those not showing clear symptoms of a heart attack) actually zoomed their chances of dying or experiencing another heart attack by 35 percent, than those given only medicine, the study found.

Explaining the possible reason behind the different outcomes seen in men and women, a researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital said , "Women appear to have a higher incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol when they come into the emergency room that may put them at higher risk of complications after cardiac catheterization."

Recommending cardiac surgeons worldwide to be more careful while suggesting the invasive treatment for their female patients, O’Donoghue said, "A more conservative strategy would be primarily managing these patients with medicines and then reserving cardiac catheterization only for those patients who either have ongoing symptoms or have a positive stress test before leaving the hospital."

Cardiac catheterization is a process of inserting a catheterdefine (thin, flexible tube) into an arterydefine or veindefine in the arm or leg. A dye is then injected in the tube to trace heart blockages. Tracking blockages on the computer screen, the surgeon then treats them with ballooning or stenting.