MSEsperanza
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"What Ails a Woman’s Heart.
The more we look, the more we find sex differences in cardiovascular disease."
by Claudia Wallis, Scientific American Jan 2019
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-ails-a-womans-heart/
The more we look, the more we find sex differences in cardiovascular disease."
by Claudia Wallis, Scientific American Jan 2019
For years cardiologists were baffled as to why up to half of women with classic symptoms of blocked vessels—chest pain, shortness of breath and an abnormal cardiac stress test—turn out to have open arteries. Doctors called it “cardiac syndrome X.” They didn't understand it, and many women were subjected to repeated angiograms in search of blockages that weren't there.
That still happens today, but more doctors now recognize that despite having open arteries, about half of women with this pattern nonetheless have ischemia—poor blood flow through the heart. The condition has gained a mouthful of a name: ischemia and no obstructive coronary artery disease, or INOCA.
The initial mystery of INOCA was how the heart could be starving for blood if its main arteries are not blocked. The answer often lies in the smaller branches and twigs of the vascular system—arterioles and capillaries that deliver oxygen and nutrients to heart muscle. The walls of these vessels are too thin to accumulate plaque, but they can become dysfunctional, failing to contract or dilate as needed
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-ails-a-womans-heart/