14 DAY TRIAL // A new study carried out by researchers at the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medial Center reveals that women don't respond as well as males do to drug treatment, such as losartan and atenolol, against cardiovascular diseases although the two drugs are successful in reducing the blood pressure in all patients regardless of gender. Losartan and atenolol are generally used to treat left-ventricular hypertrophy, which is manifested through an increase in the mass of the left ventricle of the heart, leading to future heart diseases.
Currently, heart disease is the main cause of death in Western countries regardless of gender, albeit the study shows that before menopause women have a much greater chance of developing a heart disease than men, thus increasing the risk later in life.
"Women have a greater chance of dying of their first heart attack and from stroke, and they tend to have more cardiovascular problems later in life compared with men. Certain tell-tale indicators of high-blood pressure, like LVH regression, clearly show that men and women do not respond the same to hypertension drugs," says lead author of the study Dr. Peter M. Okin, cardiologist at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Center and professor of medicine in the Greenberg Division of Cardiology at Weill Cornell Medical College.
The study monitored the evolution of the conditions of women and men with left ventricular hypertension treated either with losartan or atenolol over a period of five years and concluded that all the subjects achieved a reduction in blood pressure regardless of sex, although men showed a higher degree in the decrease in LVH than women.
"LVH is a very serious condition. When the heart's muscle is thicker than it should be, the heart has to work harder. But, there may not be signs or symptoms of LVH for many years, or never at all, making screening with electrocardiography essential," says Dr. Okin. The usual symptoms associated with LVH are chest pain, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath and fainting.
Additionally, not only than LVH reduction evolved differently in men, but measurements also show that the condition in women actually worsened over the five year period. Estimations reveal that women are 32 percent less likely to respond favorably to treatment than men and 15 percent less likely to show any progress at all.
"The observed difference in LVH regression, together with the greater prevalence of LVH, might contribute to the explanation of the steeper increase in the risk of CV events with aging in hypertensive women," wrote the authors of the paper.