Women hospitalised for acute MI or angina are significantly less likely to undergo diagnostic and revascularisation procedures than men with the same conditions, Australian researchers show.

In a prospective cohort study, researchers have linked baseline questionnaire data from 9000 NSW patients in the Sax Institute’s 45 and UP study to hospitalisation and mortality data to quantify these differences.

Half of the participants were admitted to hospital with a primary diagnosis of acute MI (64% male), and the remainder had a primary or secondary diagnosis of angina (56% male).

The researchers, led by the Australian National University, found that after adjusting for sociodemographic and health variables, men were 1.5 times more likely than women to receive either percutaneous coronary imaging (PCI) or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for acute MI.