Artery Heart Disease is Different in Women | The Doctor Weighs In

By: William H. Bestermann, Jr., M.D.

There is no better example of the disconnect between what we know and what we do than in the case of women with heart artery disease.

The specific research around the ways heart artery disease is different in women has been done. It is landmark research that has life or death implications. There are dozens of scientific articles1 that address this topic.

Differing Symptom Patterns

In all American medicine, there is no better example of the disconnect between what we know and what we do than in the case of women with heart artery disease. While the different symptom patterns in women with abnormal heart arteries are receiving more attention, a failure to translate those best-practice treatments makes their lives more dangerous and expensive. The woman who is seen in the emergency room for chest pain or other symptoms suggestive of coronary disease will be evaluated under an outdated scientific paradigm aimed at finding blocked arteries. She will have a stress test done and /or cardiac catheterization. If these tests are normal, the patient will be told that the symptoms are not related to her heart. I saw patients who had repeated chest pain and had been told that the problem was her esophagus or worse…