MedWire News: Women with heart failure are less likely to receive the same standard of treatment as men with the condition, researchers have found.

"Major advances over the last two decades in the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure have proven highly effective in reducing morbidity [illness] and mortality among both men and women," explain Dr M Lenzen, from Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and colleagues.

However, they add: "Survival is still poor among both men and women, and the absolute number of women dying of heart failure each year still increases."

To investigate whether there are gender differences in the treatment of heart failure, the researchers studied data on more than 8900 heart failure patients, 47% of whom were women.

Women with heart failure were less likely to show signs of coronary artery disease than men with heart failure, but were more likely to be older, have high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease affecting the heart's valves.

Despite this, women with heart failure were less likely to be admitted to hospital wards that specialise in heart treatment, and less likely to undergo left ventricular function tests, which measure the ability of the heart's ventricular chamber to pump blood around the body, than men with the condition.

Women with heart failure were also less likely than men to be given blood pressure medications called angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and beta blockers, which ease pressure on the heart and are known to increase life expectancy.

"Women were... less likely to be admitted to cardiology wards, or have an assessment of left ventricular function, and, in addition, were treated with guideline recommended drugs to a lesser extent than men," Dr Lenzen and colleagues summarise in the journal Heart.

They conclude: "There is no evidence-based justification for treating women with heart failure less intensively than men.

"It is important that clinicians are aware of these deficiencies in the management of women with heart failure and measures should be taken to rectify them."