Understanding a woman's heart: Lessons from 14 177 women with acute coronary syndrome

Introduction: Coronary artery disease is becoming the leading cause of death in women in Western society. However, the available data shows that women are still underdiagnosed and undertreated with guideline-recommended secondary prevention therapy, leading to a significantly higher rate of in-hospital complications and in-hospital mortality.

Objective: The main objective of this work is to assess the approach to acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in Portugal, including form of presentation, in-hospital treatment and in-hospital complications, according to gender and in three different periods.

Methods: We performed an observational study with retrospective analysis of all patients included between 2002 and 2019 in the Portuguese Registry of Acute Coronary Syndromes (ProACS), a voluntary, observational, prospective, continuous registry of the Portuguese Society of Cardiology and the National Center for Data Collection in Cardiology.

Results: A total of 49 113 patients (34 936 men and 14 177 women) were included. Obesity, hypertension, diabetes (p<0.001 for all) and dyslipidemia (p=0.022) were all more prevalent in women, who were more frequently admitted for non-ST segment elevation ACS (p<0.001), and more frequently presented with atypical symptoms. Women had more time until needle and until reperfusion, which is less accessible to this gender (p<0.001). During hospitalization, women had a significantly higher risk of in-hospital mortality (OR 1.94 [1.78-2.12], p<0.001), major bleeding (OR 1.53 [1.30-1.80], p<0.001), heart failure (OR 1.87 [1.78-1.97], p<0.001), atrial fibrillation (OR 1.55 [1.36-1.77], p<0.001), mechanical complications (OR 2.12 [1.78-2.53], p<0.001), cardiogenic shock (OR 1.71 [1.57-1.87], p<0.001) and stroke (OR 2.15 [1.76-2.62], p<0.001). Women were more likely to have a normal coronary angiogram or coronary lesions with <50% luminal stenosis (p<0.001 for both), and thus a final diagnosis other than ACS. Both during hospitalization and at hospital discharge, women were less likely to receive guideline-recommended secondary prevention therapy.

Conclusion: In women admitted for ACS, revascularization strategies are still underused, as is guideline-recommended secondary prevention therapy, which may explain their higher incidence of in-hospital complications and higher unadjusted mortality.