Study finds implantable defibrillators as effective in women...( Women who have had a heart attack get a...),Health

ICDs are designed to counter arrhythmias, electrical malfunctions that throw the heart out of rhythm and are a major cause of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in 450,000 Americans each year. Many confuse SCD with heart attack, a crisis brought on when a blocked artery damages heart muscle. The two problems come together when scar tissue left behind by a heart attack interferes with the heart's electrical system, bringing on arrhythmia.

Beta blockers in combination with ACE-inhibitors and statins are the treatment of choice for heart attack survivors, but fail to reduce risk of arrhythmia in many cases. ICDs have been gaining ground since the 2002 MADIT II study (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial II) found that the devices could reduce mortality by 31 percent in patients who had a heart attack. Led out of the University of Rochester Medical Center, the landmark study changed medical guidelines nationwide and made a hundred thousand heart attack survivors eligible for ICD therapy.

Some experts have since questioned, however, whether the ICD benefit extends to women, who were underrepresented in past studies and continue to be undertreated for heart disease in general, according to the American Heart Association. Until now, little data has been available to either support or debunk their use specifically in women. To address the gap, researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center re-analyzed the MADIT II data, pulling out the data on women comparing the effects of ICD therapy in women and men.

The analysis found that women have similar risk of both overall mortality and SCD following hea
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Contact: Greg Williams
Greg_Williams@urmc.rochester.edu
University of Rochester Medical Center
22-Dec-2005