Category: Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the major cause of death and disability for U.S. women—43.3% of all female deaths occur from Cardiovascular disease. Overall, one in five women have some form of Cardiovascular disease, but this proportion varies depending on age: only one in seven women have Cardiovascular disease at ages 45-64 years but almost one [...]
Menopause and hormonal therapy
Menopause is associated with a severe decline in estrogen levels that may worsen cardiac risk factors. Premenopausal women who had bilateral resection of their ovaries and did not receive estrogen therapy had twice the risk of myocardial infarction than those who took estrogen. Although menopausal hormone therapy was previously considered cardioprotective, a recently completed trial, [...]
Pregnancy and heart disease
Pregnancy imposes a 30-50% increase in the amount of blood pumped by the mother’s heart to the uterus and the baby, especially after second trimester. Labor imposes extra effort on the heart because of large changes in the circulating blood volume. Normally, this increase in heart activity is well tolerated by the mother. However, certain [...]
Women and valvular heart disease
Women have a higher incidence of mitral valve prolapse than men. However, most studies suggest that men are more likely to develop mitral regurgitation, the main complication associated with mitral valve prolapse. If mitral valve prolapse is associated with mitral regurgitation (backflow of blood through the mitral valve of the heart), guidelines recommend antibiotic prophylaxis [...]
Cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death in women
Sudden death can be the first manifestation of Coronary artery disease in women. Because Coronary artery disease is often the cause of sudden death, women develop this usually 10-20 years later than men in a pattern following the development of Coronary artery disease. However, female survivors of cardiac arrest are less likely to have underlying [...]
Stroke in women
The incidence of stroke increases with age. Because the average life expectancy is higher in women, each year 40,000 more women develop strokes than men. The long-term survival after stroke is better in women than men. Women make up to 60% of total deaths from stroke. Black women have higher death rates from stroke (78.1%) [...]
Pulmonary hypertension
Normally, the pressure in the lung circulation is five times lower than blood pressure in the arteries. Any abnormal elevation in the arterial or venous pulmonary pressures can lead to pulmonary hypertension (elevated pressure in the lung circulation). Pulmonary hypertension is a multifactorial disease causing breathlessness on exertion, fatigue, and hypoxemia (lowered oxygen levels in [...]
Autoimmune diseases of connective tissue and cardiovascular involvement
Connective tissue disorders are a cluster of autoimmune diseases in which antibodies are generated against certain cell proteins (part of connective tissue), which trigger a potent inflammatory response that particularly involves the arterial wall. Thus, cardiovascular involvement is very common in these patients. Because the autoimmune processes are stimulated by the high levels of estrogen [...]