Report: Women's heart risks overlooked

WASHINGTON -- Heart disease can sneak up on women in ways that standard cardiac tests can miss.

It's part of a puzzling gender gap: Women tend to have different heart attack symptoms than men. They're more likely to die in the year after a first heart attack.

More than 40 percent of women don't realize heart disease is the No. 1 female killer. One in 30 women's deaths in 2007 was from breast cancer, compared with about 1 in 3 from cardiovascular disease, according to the American Heart Association.

A new report says there's been too little progress in tackling the sex differences in heart disease. It outlines the top questions scientists must answer to find the best ways to treat women's hearts -- and protect them in the first place.

"A woman's heart is her major health threat, and everyone who takes care of a woman has to realize that," says Emory University cardiologist Dr. Nanette Wenger, who co-authored the report.

While overall deaths have been dropping in recent years, that improvement has been slower for women who face some unique issues, says the report from the nonprofit Society for Women's Health Research and WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women With Heart Disease.

Even if a test of major heart arteries finds no blockages, at-risk women still can have a serious problem -- something called coronary microvascular disease, which is less common in men. Small blood vessels that feed the heart become damaged so they spasm or squeeze shut. Wenger says it's not clear what the best treatments are.

The report says part of the lack of understanding about such gender issues is because heart-related studies still don't focus enough on women.