Detection of coronary artery disease in women. The pitfalls of noninvasive tests.
Even though coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in women, a diagnostic dilemma still remains owing to the high rate of false-positive results observed with noninvasive testing. It still is not clear why a gender bias exists in the noninvasive and invasive evaluation of women suspected of coronary artery disease. Probability analysis may reduce the number of unnecessary coronary angiographies in women, thus setting up a sex-specific approach. Stress echocardiography studies have shown no sex differences in the cardiac response to this test. Because of the greater specificity of this test, some groups have suggested that stress echocardiography could be the initial test of choice in women, and justifiable on cost analysis.
Laurienzo
J M
JM
Cardiology Branch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors; D014463:Ultrasonography