Women diagnosed with diabetes are more likely to suffer from heart attacks than men diagnosed with the same condition. Two new studies from China and Italy have discovered that heart problems are increasingly more common in women than in men with diabetes after analyzing the results of previous large-scale studies and reports.
Diabetes is associated with a heart diseases such as acute coronary syndrome, encompassing heart attacks or angina. However, the intensity of risk that this blood sugar condition has on both genders has not been clearly established. In the new studies, the researchers focused on the gender of patients to determine who among men or women are at a more increased risk.
In the Chinese study led by Dr. Xue Dong from the Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital of Southeast University in China, the researchers systematically collated studies from Embase, PubMed and Cochrane Library conducted from 1966-2014. The experts were able to gather a total of 19 relevant cohort and case-control researches that analyzed about 11 million individuals. After analysis, Dong and colleagues discovered that women diagnosed with diabetes have an approximately 40 percent more risk of experiencing acute coronary syndromes compared to men diagnosed with the same endocrine disorder.
The Italian study was headed by Dr. Giuseppe Seghieri from the Regional Health Agency in Florence. Together with his colleagues, they searched for information from hospitals all over the Tuscan area of the country. The final data gathered for analysis included reports from 2005-2012 and contained more than three million patients, of which 47 percent were men. After the investigations, the researchers found that women exhibited a 34 percent increased risk of suffering from heart attacks compared to men, regardless of the age factor. As for the risk of congestive heart failure or stroke, the study found similar results for both men and women with diabetes.
Both the Chinese and Italian studies did not disclose potential rationales why the risk results were different between the genders. Also, neither of the papers identified the type of diabetes that the participants were diagnosed with.
"We should avoid sexual prejudice in cardiovascular disease," said the Chinese researchers. All people should employ the required interventions to detect the disease early and manage risk factors thoroughly so as to ensure that the best treatments options are offered to patients and that excellent prognosis may be attained by female patients.
The two studies will be presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Stockholm, Sweden.
