Why are fatal heart diseases diagnosed in men more often than in women?

Women may miss potentially dangerous heart conditions due to recommendations that do not take into account natural sex and physiological differences.

The study, led by researchers at University College London, shows how current recommendations could be changed following a new personalized approach that improves diagnostic accuracy. Testing the updated method on 1,600 patients with clinically confirmed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the researchers found that it was particularly effective in women, increasing detection rates.

The new method takes into account a person’s age, gender, height and weight to determine whether their heart muscle is dangerously enlarged. This will not only help avoid situations where the doctor “missed” the patient, but will also reduce the number of cases of incorrect diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

The team used an AI tool to analyze cardiac MRI scans more accurately and quickly. The development was provided with 5,000 MRI scans of healthy hearts, which measured the thickness of the wall of the left ventricle. From these data, the researchers were able to determine what ventricular wall thickness is considered normal for people of different ages, genders, and sizes measured by body surface area.

This allowed scientists to establish thresholds for abnormal wall thickness indicating hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The threshold was higher for older, larger people, and men in general, and lower for younger, thinner, shorter people, and women.

After testing the accuracy of the new thresholds in a group of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the researchers applied them, as well as a standard threshold, to a group of more than 43,000 participants.

Of the eight people identified with possible HCM using the current cutoff, only one was female. However, when the new personalized thresholds were used, the total number of people identified decreased, indicating fewer misdiagnoses. It is important to note that there was a much more even distribution between men and women, with women making up 44% of those identified, which is a more realistic result since hypertrophic cardiomyopathy affects men and women equally.