Young Women Who Survive Cardiovascular Event Have Long-Term Risks

Be careful out there.
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Young women who survive a myocardial infarction (MI) or a stroke still face long-term risks of death and illness, according to a study published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
While death rates from the acute phase of cardiovascular events have decreased, the disease burden remains high in the increasing number of survivors, which is especially important for those affected at a young age. However, little information is available about the long-term outcomes of young patients, especially women, who survive cardiovascular events.
For the current study, Frits R. Rosendaal, MD, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands, and colleagues determined long-term mortality and morbidity in young women who survived a MI or an ischaemic stroke and compared them with a control group.
The study included 226 women who had a MI (mean age, 42 years), 160 women who had an ischaemic stroke (mean age, 40 years), and 782 women (mean age, 48 years) in the comparison group with no history of arterial thrombosis. The women were followed-up for a median of nearly 19 years.
Death rates were 3.7 times higher in women who had a MI (8.8 per 1,000 person-years) and 1.8 times higher in women who had an ischaemic stroke (4.4 per 1,000 person-years) compared with the control group (2.4 per 1,000 person-years). This elevated mortality lasted over time and was mainly supported by a high rate of deaths from acute vascular events.
When both fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events were counted, the incidence rate was highest in women who had an ischaemic stroke (14.1 per 1,000 person-years) compared with the control group. The rate was 12.1 per 1,000 person-years in women who had a MI.
In women who had a MI, the risk of cardiac events was 10.1 per 1,000 person-years and the risk of cerebral events was 1.9 per 1,000 person-years. In women who had an ischaemic stroke, the risk of cerebral events was 11.1 per 1,000 person-years and the risk of cardiac events was 2.7 per 1,000 person-years.
The authors acknowledge a reduced generalisability of their results because procedures and risk factors change over time, which is a problem of all long-term follow-up studies.
“Our findings provide direct insight into the consequences of cardiovascular diseases in young women, which persist for decades after the initial event, stressing the importance of life-long prevention strategies,” the authors concluded.
SOURCE: JAMA Internal Medicine