Artery opening procedures used to widen a narrowing artery have been found to work similarly in both men and women.
In the June 17 published issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the
Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedure (more commonly known as
Coronary angioplasty or simply
Angioplasty) was studied for efficacy and safety in women. This study follows a long standing issue that women who had received the intervention showed a higher rate of death.
Mayo Clinic researchers looked into 25 years of PCI procedures performed on nearly 20,000 people. After looking closely at the results, the team realized in recent years the data has taken an upturn swing in efficacy. Today, the effectiveness of the PCI procedure is equally as effective in both men and women.
The study compared nearly 8,000 people who received the PCI procedure from 1979 to 1995 (28% women) to nearly 11,000 people receiving the same procedure from 1996 to 2004 (31% women). Death rates were reduced by 0.6% for men and 1.5% for women between the two sectors of the study.
The success rate of the procedure for men is 90% and women, 89%, negating the thought that women were more likely to suffer death as a result of the PCI procedure.
The earlier higher death rates can possibly be linked to the age difference between the men and women receiving the procedure at the time. Women being commonly up to 5 years older than men when receiving PCI.
Improvement in the success rate could also possibly be linked to changes in the medical community with the improvements in stunting and anti-coagulation which may reduce death risk.
This new study supports a Pennsylvania study of 31,000 residents which came to the same positive results for the women receiving the PCI procedure.
