Cardiovascular Disease in Women Part 2: Prevention, Identification, and Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is preventable with lifestyle modification and pharmacologic risk reduction. Risk can be reduced with aspirin and statin primary prevention in select women, but commonly used risk calculators have been shown to underestimate women’s risk. For women with intermediate risk, coronary artery calcium (CAC) is a noninvasive imaging test for additional risk stratification. For symptomatic CVD, women often present without classic anginal symptoms, delaying diagnosis. Treatment guidelines for hypertension, ischemic heart disease, and stroke are the same for women and men yet women’s management less often follows the guidelines when compared to men. Over the course of her lifetime, a woman’s primary care physician can improve her CVD outcomes through a combination of risk reduction, timely diagnosis, and guideline-driven therapy.