Women’s heart disease risks and their need to start taking preventive medications should be evaluated when they are in their 30s rather than well after menopause as is now the practice, said researchers who published a study on Saturday.
Presenting the findings at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in London, they said the study showed for the first time that simple blood tests make it possible to estimate a woman’s risk of cardiovascular disease over the next three decades.
“This is good for patients first and foremost, but it is also important information for (manufacturers of) cholesterol lowering drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, and lipoprotein(a)lowering drugs – the implications for therapy are broad,” said study leader Dr. Paul Ridker of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Current guidelines “suggest to physicians that women should generally not be considered for preventive therapies until their 60s and 70s. These new data … clearly demonstrate that our guidelines need to change,” Ridker said. “We must move beyond discussions of 5- or 10-year risk.”
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