Four million people die each year from cardiovascular disease in Europe. On the continent, this figure represents 42% of deaths among the female population, nearly one woman in two who dies. Figures that make it the leading cause of death in the world. The most common form of heart disease is coronary artery disease, which alone kills 1.8 million people a year in Europe.
Men are more easily diagnosed
Until now, it was easier to detect the risk of heart attacks in male patients. Because blood tests for this purpose measure the level of troponin, a muscle protein that plays a role in muscle contraction, a substance present in greater quantities in men. In addition, symptoms such as back pain and abdominal discomfort are more common in women and therefore less often considered an indication of a high risk of heart attack.
This discovery could save thousands of women
British scientists from the University of Edinburgh, who published their discovery in the British Medical Journal, have therefore developed a more sensitive blood test, which will cost just a few euros. They first tested 1,126 people of both sexes with the normal test, which is de rigueur in all hospitals around the world today:19% of men were diagnosed positively at high risk of heart attack, against 11% of women. That is 117 men and 55 women. Then the researchers used their new method, on the same people:fewer than five men had to be added to the list of people needing treatment and 111 women were diagnosed, a 22% increase over the normal test. In addition, these people have a higher risk of dying or having another heart attack in the next few years.
A great advance in medicine that is not yet practiced in all hospitals in Great Britain because other tests are still in progress, but this blood test should be arriving soon to us.
