- Atherosclerosis is a condition in which the arteries narrow due to a sticky accumulation of plaque deposits.
- Researchers state females over the age of 55 with this condition are at a greater danger of a cardiovascular occasion such as a cardiac arrest than males in the exact same age.
- Experts state females of any ages can enhance their cardiovascular health by preserving healthy high blood pressure and cholesterol levels along with by not smoking cigarettes.
Postmenopausal females who have actually obstructed arteries are at greater danger of cardiac arrest than males who are the exact same age.
That’s according to research study existing at the clinical congress of the European Society of Cardiology that was released just recently in the European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Imaging.
In their research study, scientists said they discovered that having plaque is more unsafe in females who are postmenopausal compared to males of the exact same age.
“The study suggests that a given burden of atherosclerosis is riskier in postmenopausal women than it is in men of that age,” Dr. Sophie van Rosendael, an author of the research study and a scientist at Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands said, in a press declaration.
“Since atherosclerotic plaque burden is emerging as a target to decide the intensity of therapy to prevent heart attacks, the findings may impact treatment,” she included. “Our results indicate that after menopause, women may need a higher dose of statins or the addition of another lipid-lowering drug. More studies are needed to confirm these findings.”
The research study included almost 25,000 individuals throughout 6 nations in North America, Europe, and Asia.
An imaging method called coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) was utilized to catch 3D pictures of the arteries in the heart.
Atherosclerosis is when the arteries narrow due to a build of sticky deposits of plaque.
In the United States, it’s approximated that about
The scientists analyzed whether the existence of atherosclerosis had the exact same significance in diagnosis for males and females of the exact same age.
They reported that there was a 12-year hold-up in the start of coronary atherosclerosis in females.
The existence of plaque was discovered to be similarly predictive of a significant unfavorable cardiovascular occasion in males and females aged under 55.
However, in females who were 55 and older and in the postmenopausal group, the danger of an unfavorable cardiovascular occasion was greater than in males in the exact same age.
Among postmenopausal females, those with a medium or high plaque problem had a 2.21 to 6.11-fold greater danger of a significant unfavorable cardiovascular occasion.
“In this study, the elevated risk for women versus men was especially observed in postmenopausal women. This could be partly because the inner diameter of coronary arteries is smaller in women, meaning that the same amount of plaque could have a larger impact on blood flow,” van Rosendael said.
“Our findings link the known acceleration of atherosclerosis development after menopause with a significant increase in relative risk for women compared to men, despite a similar burden of atherosclerotic disease. This may have implications for the intensity of medical treatment,” she included.
Dr. Abha Khandelwal, a scientific associate teacher of cardiovascular medication at Stanford University in California, not associated with the research study, said these findings aren’t unexpected.
“Clinically, what we see is there’s a whole host of changes that occur around menopause and several of them are significantly impactful to the cardiometabolic status of a woman. So. it is very common that women will have derangements in their blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, weight, all around the time of menopause. So I always ask my patients to be reassessed around that time,” she informed Medical News Today.
“In menopause, specifically, women go through not only a lot of cardiometabolic changes, they go through a lot of emotional changes, rates of depression can go up, sleep is disrupted. All these things we know when they’re left untreated can influence cardiac outcomes,” Khandelwal included.
Experts state there are a variety of actions females can take even prior to menopause to help safeguard their cardiovascular health.
“At all ages of life, there’s an opportunity for each patient to work with her doctor to maximize a healthy lifestyle, to screen for atherosclerosis, or this sticky plaque build up, to screen for the risk factors that cause atherosclerosis, which include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, family history, vasculitis or inflammation of the blood vessels, certain autoimmune conditions and others and then treat these proactively,” Dr. Sarina van der Zee, a heart electrophysiologist and cardiologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in California, informed Medical News Today.
“So absolutely there are preventative options that a woman with her doctor can identify, treat upstream and prevent from coming becoming an issue. This is especially important after menopause, but certainly is an important process to start even beforehand, if possible,” she included.
