Hormone replacement therapy and cardiovascular disease: what went wrong and where do we go from here?
Observational studies in humans and experimental studies in animals and isolated cells supported the widely held belief that hormone replacement therapy protects the cardiovascular system from disease. To nearly everyone's astonishment, the Women's Health Initiative Study and the Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study overturned the conclusion that hormone replacement therapy protects the cardiovascular system and, in fact, supported the opposite view that such therapy may actually increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. This review addresses 2 questions: what went wrong and where do we go from here?
Center for Clinical Pharmacology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pa, USA. Raghvendra.dubey@usz.ch
Raghvendra K
RK
Dubey
Bruno
B
Imthurn
Lefteris C
LC
Zacharia
Edwin K
EK
Jackson
D000818:Animals; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000187:drug effects*; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D004967:Estrogens / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017698:Postmenopause; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D012306:Risk
D004967:Estrogens; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen