Women in US are less likely than men to get life-saving procedures after a cardiac arrest

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Women who have a cardiac arrest are less likely to receive several potentially life-saving procedures than men and more likely to die in hospitals in the United States, according to a major new study.

Researchers looked at the treatment of more than 1.4 million men and women in more than 1,000 American hospitals between 2003 and 2012.

They found that 64 per cent of women treated in hospital for cardiac arrest died, compared to 61 per cent of men.

After adjusting for factors including the patient’s age, health and previous cardiac procedures, they found women were 25 per cent less likely to be given a coronary angiography, which can be used to look for blocked arteries.

They were also 29 per cent less like to have angioplasty – the repair or unblocking or an artery -- and 19 per cent less likely to have their body temperature lowered to increase the chance of survival and reduce the risk of brain damage.

The researchers found that such treatments had helped improve survival rates, amid a 14 per cent rise the number of cardiac arrests.

“But the troublesome part of our paper is that just as with many other treatments we're still not doing as good a job with women as men. Women tend to get less immediate care when time is essential,” said Professor Luke Kim, lead author of a paper about the study in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Previous studies have suggested women have better chances of surviving a cardiac arrest than men.

But Professor Kim said: “Most of the prior studies suggesting improved survival in women were performed in Japan or Sweden, which greatly differ from US healthcare in algorithms and access to resuscitative care.”

The paper laid out a number of possible reasons why women might not get the same treatment as men.

For example, women “tend to experience more atypical symptoms … and less chest pain compared to men”.

They are also more likely to suffer from conditions that might initially appear similar to a cardiac arrest, such as a pulmonary embolism.

Woman can also have a higher risk of bleeding “which can lead to more reserved use of angiography” and another procedure called Percutaneous Coronary Intervention, “particularly when the etiology [cause] of cardiac arrest is not clearly identified”.

The paper also noted previous research which found men were more likely to die before reaching the hospital than women, so that the survival figures might be influenced by the male patients being in a better condition, as a group, when they arrive at the hospital.

However the researchers stressed they had not been able to establish the reasons why women were less likely to have the procedures than men, saying they paper should be “considered hypothesis-generating”.

A number of factors that might influence the treatment of patients – such as whether the arrest was witnessed or not – could not be taken into account.

But the paper added: “These data present an opportunity to improve national cardiac arrest processes and outcomes, and to focus on reducing sex-based disparities in caring for post-arrest patients.”