13th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 1998

January 24-31, 1998
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-240

Are women with cardiovascular disease discriminated concerning treatment?

Andrea Podczeck, Konrad K. Steinbach.
3rd Medical Department/Cardiology and Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Arrhythmia Research Wilhelminenspital, Vienna, Austria

In the last few years there has developed an increasing interest in and awareness of the importance of sex differences in the epidemiology, presentation, identification and management of various cardiac disorders, especially of coronary artery disease. Various publications demonstrated a gender bias against women with respect to the use of resources, in the form of referral for further investigation, coronary angiography and revascularisation. In an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine¹, this problem was called "the Yentl syndrome" with respect to the heroine of Isaak Singer's story of a woman who had to disguise herself as a man to be paid attention of.

We carried out two different studies with a special respect to possible discrimination against women.