Sophia Antipolis, France, 17 March 2005: The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) today launches its new initiative Women at Heart at the Spring Meeting of its 49 National Cardiac Societies. Women at Heart is aimed at medical professionals, to highlight the growing burden and under-appreciation of women's heart disease and promote improved handling of women at risk of cardiovascular disease in clinical practice.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the primary cause of death in European women, killing a higher percentage of women (55%) even than men (43%) and more than all cancers combined. However, there still exists a disturbing gap in the knowledge, understanding, and general awareness of cardiovascular disease in women, not only in the women themselves, but across medical audiences as a whole. CVD is seen as a 'male disease' by the general public and, since women's symptoms and disease progression trends differ from men's, primary care physicians and cardiologists are all too frequently under-diagnosing and under-treating women, insufficiently familiar with their less 'traditional' presentation profiles.

Women are under-represented in clinical trials and their CVD clinical manifestations are less well charted and outlined to the medical professional in their initial or ongoing training. There is thus much to be done to increase the understanding of women's CVD and improve the quality of treatment of women with CVD across Europe.

Women at Heart

Women at Heart will act as the springboard for a number of ESC-driven events and activities to accentuate the important issues surrounding women and CVD.

Through Women at Heart, the ESC will call for and work towards the following key objectives:

• Increased awareness across Europe that CVD is the primary cause of death in women
• Better understanding of women's risk factors / presentation profiles by the medical profession
• Improved treatment of women wit
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Contact: Camilla Dormer
cdormer@escardio.org
33-492-94-8627
European Society of Cardiology
17-Mar-2005


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