CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH AND DISEASE IN WOMEN

Each year approximately 2.5 million U.S. women are hospitalized for cardiovascular illness, which also claims the lives of 500,000 women annually; half these deaths are due to coronary heart disease1. Despite the magnitude of this problem and its adverse repercussions on the national public health, we have insufficient information about preventive strategies, diagnostic testing, responses to medical and surgical therapies, and other aspects of cardiovascular illness in women. This lack of information is compounded by the less frequent participation of women in research studies; the difference has been due in part to the exclusion of women of childbearing age… © 1993, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.