Study suggests implanted defibrillators less effective for female heart patients

Women treated for heart disease with implantable cardioverter defibrillators are significantly less likely to survive potentially fatal heart arrhythmias than men, according to a new study presented last month at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting in Atlanta.

‘Wake-up call’
The study, conducted by researchers in UConn’s schools of Pharmacy and Medicine, found that female patients with cardiovascular disease and a high risk of fatal heart arrhythmias experienced only a 12 percent reduction in risk of death with the use of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, compared to a 24 percent reduction in risk for male patients with the same profile who use the devices.

The devices are currently considered the treatment of choice for patients at high risk of sudden cardiac death.

“Our study strongly suggests that implantable cardiac defibrillators should no longer be considered the treatment of choice for women at high risk of fatal heart arrhythmias,” says Nickole Henyan, a research fellow in the School of Pharmacy and the study’s lead author.

“The devices can provide life-saving therapy for many patients but, unfortunately, little has been known about their effectiveness in women until now, because male patients account for the majority of the participants in clinical trials,” Henyan says.

“This study should serve as a wake-up call to the medical community that special attention needs to be paid to women’s health, especially when it comes to finding new ways to help them achieve the same survival success rates as men.”

The study, using an approach known as meta-analysis, reviewed five controlled clinical trials involving 6,405 patients.