(Press-News.org) Sophia Antipolis, 27 January 2021: Pregnancy complications and early menopause increase women's future risk of heart disease. Cardiologists, gynaecologists and endocrinologists recommend how to help middle-aged women prevent later heart problems in a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) consensus document published today in European Heart Journal, a journal of the ESC.1
"Physicians should intensify the detection of hypertension in middle-aged women," states the document. Up to 50% of women develop high blood pressure before the age of 60 but the symptoms - for example hot flushes and palpitations - are often attributed to menopause.
"High blood pressure is called hypertension in men but in women it is often mistakenly labelled as 'stress' or 'menopausal symptoms'," said first author Professor Angela Maas, director of the Women's Cardiac Health Programme, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. "We know that blood pressure is treated less well in women compared to men, putting them at risk for atrial fibrillation, heart failure and stroke - which could have been avoided."
"A woman's life provides clues that you need to start early with prevention," said Professor Maas. "We have to assess female patients differently to men, and not just ask about high cholesterol. This will enable us to classify middle-aged women as high-risk or lower risk for cardiovascular disease."
Pre-eclampsia is linked with a four-fold increase in heart failure and hypertension and a doubled risk of stroke. Women who have an early natural (i.e. not surgical) menopause before the age of 40 are also more likely to develop cardiovascular disease - each year is associated with a 3% raised risk. Autoimmune inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus are more common in women compared to men and increase cardiovascular risk around menopause.
"There are several phases of life when we can identify subgroups of high-risk women," said Professor Maas. "High blood pressure during pregnancy is a warning sign that hypertension may develop when a woman enters menopause and it is associated with dementia many decades later. If blood pressure is not addressed when women are in their 40s or 50s, they will have problems in their 70s when hypertension is more difficult to treat."
The document provides guidance on how to manage heart health during menopause, after pregnancy complications, and during other conditions such as breast cancer and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). The important role of a healthy lifestyle and diet is recognised - e.g. for optimal management of menopausal health and in women with PCOS, who have elevated risks of high blood pressure during pregnancy and type 2 diabetes.
While menopausal hormone therapy is indicated to alleviate symptoms such as night sweats and hot flushes in women over 45, the authors recommend assessment of cardiovascular risk factors before initiation. Therapy is not recommended in women at high cardiovascular risk or after a stroke, heart attack, or blood clot.
The document provides advice for transgender women (persons assigned male at birth). "These women need hormone therapy for the rest of their lives and the risk of blood clots increases over time," said Professor Maas. The document states that transgender women "should always be encouraged to reduce modifiable lifestyle risks" while acknowledging that "the psychosocial benefits of hormone therapy with an improved body image may result in healthier lifestyle choices".
Collaboration between cardiologists, gynaecologists and endocrinologists is needed to provide the best care to female patients, noted Professor Maas. She said: "Women can help their doctors prevent heart problems and make earlier diagnoses by mentioning issues like complicated pregnancies and early menopause and monitoring their own blood pressure."
INFORMATION:
Authors: ESC Press Office
Tel: +33 (0)4 89 87 20 85
Mobile: +33 (0)7 8531 2036
Email: press@escardio.org
Follow us on Twitter @ESCardioNews
Funding: None.
Disclosures: See the paper for the disclosures of all authors.
Notes
References
1Maas AHEM, Rosano G, Cifkova R, et al. Cardiovascular health after menopause transition, pregnancy disorders, and other gynaecologic conditions: a consensus document from European cardiologists, gynaecologists, and endocrinologists. Eur Heart J. 2021. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa1044.
About the European Society of Cardiology
The European Society of Cardiology brings together health care professionals from more than 150 countries, working to advance cardiovascular medicine and help people lead longer, healthier lives.
About European Heart Journal
European Heart Journal (EHJ) is the flagship journal of the European Society of Cardiology. It is the world's leading publication in general cardiology. Please acknowledge the journal as a source in any articles.
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London and Zhengzhou University have developed a powerful therapeutic platform that uses a modified virus for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. By using the virus in combination with other drugs, the treatment significantly extended survival in preclinical models of pancreatic cancer.
Viruses that can selectively infect and destroy cancer cells, known as oncolytic viruses, are a promising new class of therapeutics for cancer. Through various mechanisms, oncolytic viruses kill cancer cells and elicit strong anti-tumour immune responses. However, current oncolytic virotherapy is unable to produce a long-term cure in patients, and the treatment has to be delivered directly into the tumour - a route that is not feasible for deeply embedded ...
A material that can be used in technologies such as solar power has been found to self-heal, a new study shows.
The findings - from the University of York - raise the prospect that it may be possible to engineer high-performance self-healing materials which could reduce costs and improve scalability, researchers say.
The substance, called antimony selenide (Sb2Se3), is a solar absorber material that can be used for turning light energy into electricity.
Professor Keith McKenna from the Department of Physics said: "The process by which this semi-conducting material self-heals is rather like how a salamander is able to re-grow limbs when one is severed. Antimony selenide repairs broken bonds created when it is cleaved by ...
The disproportionately high Covid-19 infection rates observed in Black Americans could be linked to their daily commuting patterns, according to a new study published today in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
The research found that increased exposure to other ethnic groups, for example as a result of an individual's job or use of public transport, can result in the emergence of an "infection gap" in the population, such as the abnormally high incidence of Covid-19 recorded in Black Americans.
In some areas of the US Covid-19 incidence in Black Americans can be up to three to five times higher than would be expected based on population data. Previous studies have highlighted socio-economic factors including lower income and poorer access to healthcare facilities ...
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) results from a degeneration of the hematopoietic stem cells (leukemia stem cells), thereby leading to the uncontrolled formation of specific white blood cells, the so-called granulocytes. Research work at the Department of Medical Oncology at the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital and the University of Bern focused therefore on identifying the signaling pathways and control mechanisms of the leukemia stem cell. A promising approach is provided by working with MPR, an anti-emetic medication commonly used to treat nausea and vomiting.
Specific blocking of leukemia stem cell proliferation with metoclopramide
The exact role of the surface molecule CD93 (cluster of differentiation 93) in controlling the ...
A multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS) have developed a technique to replicate bone tissue complexity and bone remodeling processes. This breakthrough could help researchers further their study of bone biology and assist in improving development of drugs for osteoporosis.
Published in Science Advances, the researchers developed a new biomaterial they call demineralized bone paper. The team includes Jungwoo Lee, Yongkuk Park, Ryan Carpenter, chemical engineering; Eugene Cheong, ...
Our cells are filled with 'bones,' in a sense. Thin, flexible protein strands called actin filaments help support and move around the bulk of the cells of eukaryotes, which includes all plants and animals. Always on the go, actin filaments constantly grow, shrink, bind with other things, and branch off when cells move.
Supercomputer simulations have helped solve the mystery of how actin filaments polymerize, or chain together. This fundamental research could be applied to treatments to stop cancer spread, develop self-healing materials, and more.
"The major findings ...
A compound that extends lifespan in a tiny nematode worm slows bone loss in aging mice. That surprising result comes from a longitudinal and functional study of 700 aging mice at the Buck Institute, a project that provides a treasure trove of data for researchers aiming to develop therapeutics to slow aging and age-related diseases. The study is currently online in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research Plus.
The project, which involved five Buck labs and took several years to complete, involved serially profiling the individual mice as they aged while testing several therapeutics that extended lifespan in simple model organisms ...
Black children have significantly higher rates of shellfish and fish allergies than white children, confirming that race plays an important role in how children are affected by food allergies, researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found. Results of the study were published in the February issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.
"Food allergy is a common condition in the U.S., and we know from our previous research that there are important differences between African-American and white children with food allergy, but there is so much we need to know to be able to help our patients from minority groups," said Dr. Mahboobeh Mahdavinia, who is lead author of the ...
A research team from the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM) has shown that women who have had serious complications during pregnancy are twice as likely to die up to three decades later.
Serious conditions such as stroke, cardiac complications, acute kidney failure and pre-eclampsia affect just under 5 % of women during pregnancy and childbirth.
In a study published in Obstetrics & Gynecology, CRCHUM researcher Dr. Nathalie Auger and postdoctoral fellow Ugochinyere Vivian Ukah examined the long-term mortality risks of women with these types of pregnancy complications by analyzing more than 1.2 million records of women who gave birth in Quebec between 1989 and 2016.
Their findings? Compared to women who had no serious pregnancy complications, women ...
In 2012, four-year-old Bertrand Might became the first-ever patient diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called N-glycanase (NGLY1) deficiency. The discovery of this condition and Bertrand's diagnosis allowed doctors to look for other children with the same genetic defect. Since then, more than 60 additional patients have been found. The disease affects every system of the body and is characterized by low muscle tone, seizures, developmental delays, and an inability to produce tears.
Sadly, Bertrand passed away in October at the age of 12. Although his life was cut short, his legacy will benefit children around the world. Through ...
