Coronary artery disease. The other half of the heaven.
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death in both men and women in the United States as well as in most of the industrialized world. Emerging data have displayed important sex-based differences in CAD: its pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnostic strategies, response to therapies, and adverse outcomes. Although the incidence of CAD has doubled among women in the past decade, and the rate of women referred to diagnostic testing and revascularization has increased, this disease in female population is still identified less often, at a later stage and treated less aggressively than in men. Significant advances have been made in scintigraphic myocardial perfusion imaging for detection of ischemia, determination of prognosis, assessment of viability and evaluation of the efficacy of revascularization. With the introduction of technetium-99m perfusion agents, gated single photon emission computed tomography and attenuation correction, myocardial perfusion imaging in women has achieved as high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of CAD as that observed in men and can be considered an adequate noninvasive test to follow-up women with heart disease.
Milan
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PET Center, Nuclear Medicine Unit, S. Giacomo Apostolo Hospital, Via Ospedale 18, Castelfranco Veneto (TV), Italy. elisamilan@iol.it
D015897:Comorbidity; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008571:Men; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D009204:Myocardial Revascularization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014930:Women; D016387:Women's Health