Elderly women diagnosed with nonspecific chest pain may be at increased cardiovascular risk
Authors
Robinson, Jennifer G.Wallace, Robert B.
Limacher, Marian C.
Sato, Alicia
Cochrane, Barbara B.
Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia
Ockene, Judith K.
Blanchette, Patricia L.
Ko, Marcia G.
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive and Behavioral MedicineDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2006-12-15Keywords
AgedCardiovascular Diseases
and control
Chest Pain
Cohort Studies
Confidence Intervals
Female
Health Status
Humans
Middle Aged
Odds Ratio
Postmenopause
Risk Assessment
Risk Factors
Severity of Illness Index
Stroke
United States
*Women's Health
Life Sciences
Medicine and Health Sciences
Women's Studies
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
BACKGROUND: Women are more likely than men to have nonspecific chest pain (NSCP) symptoms. The long-term outcomes in women discharged with a diagnosis of NSCP are unknown. METHODS: The Women's Health Initiative Observational Study enrolled postmenopausal women aged 50-79 years. After excluding those with prior cardiovascular disease (CVD), 83,622 women were studied. NSCP cases were defined as having an initial primary hospital discharge diagnosis of NSCP (ICD-9 codes 786.50, 786.51, 786.59) without a prior diagnosis of coronary heart disease (CHD). Risks of subsequent CHD events were estimated from Cox proportional hazard ratio (HR) models stratified by clinic and adjusted for baseline age, cardiovascular risk factors, and hormone use. RESULTS: Over an average of 8 years of follow-up, 11% (230 of 2,092) of women with NSCP experienced a cardiovascular event compared with 9.5% (7,724 of 81,530) who did not. Compared with women without a hospitalization for NSCP during follow-up, those with NSCP had a greater than 2-fold higher risk of a subsequent hospitalization for clinically diagnosed angina (HR 2.18, 95% CI 1.66-2.86) and at least a 1.5-fold higher risk of nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) (HR 1.59, 1.10-2.31), revascularization (HR 1.67, 1.28-2.20), and congestive heart failure (HR 1.75, 1.27-2.41). Women with NSCP who subsequently experienced a CHD event were more likely to be over age 65 or to have cardiovascular risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Older women discharged with a diagnosis of NSCP may be at increased risk of CHD morbidity. Further research is needed to replicate these findings in other populations.Source
J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2006 Dec;15(10):1151-60. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1089/jwh.2006.15.1151Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/50916PubMed ID
17199456Related Resources
Link to article in PubMedae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1089/jwh.2006.15.1151