Although equal, there are some anatomical and biological differences between men and women. These differences become highly significant when it comes to medicine and diseases. One gender may be more prone to develop certain diseases, while the other gender may handle certain diseases with much more ease. Cancer, for example, affects certain areas in men and women – men develop prostate cancer, while women develop breast cancer. However, there is little difference between them when it comes to the other types of cancer that both genders are at equal risk to develop.

Traditionally, men were more prone to developing heart diseases and, consequently, to having heart attacks, then women. Men were also more likely to have heart attack at younger ages than most women. However, it seems that women also have a weak spot when it comes to heart attacks. Although women are affected by heart attacks later on in life, they are less likely to survive the first 24 hours in a hospital after suffering a severe heart attack, as a new study has recently revealed. The study has concluded that women who suffer heart attacks are overall less likely to receive the proper treatment in due time, namely aspirin or other specific drugs for heart afflictions, or therapy aimed to restore blood flow, not to mention angioplasty, a procedure designed to open blocked arteries.
The study that has assessed a higher mortality risk in female patients that have suffered a severe heart attack, in comparison with their male counterparts, appears today, in the current issue of medical journal “Circulation”. The journal is a publication belonging to the American Heart Association.

The researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, were the ones responsible with studying the data regarding both treatments and outcomes of over 78,000 patients and their respective cases, admitted to 420 hospitals, in a time-span of five years – between 2001 and 2006. The difference between mean and women suffering heart attacks appears in one type of heart attack, namely the ST-elevation myocardial infarction, also known as STEMI. With this condition, women were more prone by 12% to die in the hospital, as opposed to men.

The ST-elevation describes an abnormal heart rhythm, which is noticeable by electrocardiogram. There have been studies in the past that have concluded that women are less likely to survive heart attacks, yet researchers still argue over the causes of this difference.