Clinical Case
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A 54-year-old immigrant South Asian woman presents with a strong family history of diabetes mellitus type II (DM) and premature coronary artery disease (CAD). She is a vegetarian and her diet consists of lentils, naan bread, rice, curries and stews, and occasional “fast food” when out of the home. She is a nonsmoker, body mass index (BMI) 27, abdominal circumference of 35 in., blood pressure 125/85, and heart rate 90. She is perimenopausal and her cholesterol panel reveals: high-density lipoprotein (HDL) 32, triglyceride (TG) 160, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) 108. Her hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is 7.5 on oral medication. She does not exercise routinely. Recently, with walking uphill and stairs, she experiences exertional back pain, neck “tightness,” leg cramps, dyspnea, and anxiety. Baseline electrocardiogram (ECG): nonspecific ST-T wave abnormality. An echocardiogram (echo) revealed normal left ventricular (LV) function with ejection fraction (EF) 60% with mildly reduced global longitudinal strain of − 15%. She subsequently underwent exercise stress myocardial perfusion where she completed 5 min on the Bruce protocol. She experienced neck and back pain with peak exercise. There were 0.5 mm horizontal ST segment depressions in leads II, III, aVF, and V4–V6 starting at 2:00 min following exercise at heart rate (HR) 107 bpm and persisted 3:00 min in recovery. Her perfusion imaging revealed severe reversible defects in the mid-distal inferolateral wall with transient ischemic dilatation (Figure 1). Coronary angiography revealed severe three-vessel disease. [Proximal left anterior descending (LAD) 80%, mid-LAD 80%, OM1 99%, OM2 diffuse 99%; and small right coronary artery (RCA) 90%.] Despite small caliber of vessels with suboptimal bypass targets, she underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) × 5. On optimal medication, 1 week later two obtuse marginal (OM) grafts closed and she sustained a non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction.
What were this woman’s cardiovascular risk factors and what is her pretest probability for developing coronary atherosclerosis?
Abstract
There has been an appropriate focus, since the turn of the 21st century, on sex- and gender-specific cardiovascular disease (CVD) as evidence suggests that there are substantial differences in the risk factor profile, social and environmental factors, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of CVD in women compared to men. As a result of increased awareness, detection, and treatment of CVD in women, there has been significant reduction (greater than 30%) in cardiovascular mortality in the United States [1], [2], [3]. Presently, more men than women die of CVD. Nevertheless, continued efforts are required as CVD remains the leading cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality of women in the Western world and in women younger than 55 there has been a rise in cardiovascular mortality [4]. The 2010 landmark Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, “Women’s Health Research: Progress, Pitfalls, and Promise,” highlighted that although major progress had been made in reducing cardiovascular mortality in women, there were disparities in disease burden among subgroups of women, particularly those women who are socially disadvantaged because of race, ethnicity, income level, and educational attainment [5]. The IOM recommended targeted research on these subpopulations with the highest risk and burden of disease. Causes of disparities are multifactorial and are related to differences in risk factor prevalence, access to care, use of evidence-based guidelines, and social and environmental factors. In this chapter, we review a few of the contributing factors to the disparities in CVD in women with a focus on the high-risk subgroups of women from black, Latino, and South Asian descent.