Fewer Women Than Men Screened for Stroke.

Women who have a stroke are less apt to have the conventional diagnostic screening tests than men, according to new research.

A study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, in Miami (FL, USA) in April 2005, revealed that in a study of almost 400 stroke patients, only 60% of women who suffered a stroke underwent carotid ultrasound imaging of the neck arteries compared with 71% of men. Correspondingly, 48% of women underwent an ultrasound scan of the heart looking for blood clots that could move to the brain, compared with 57% of men.

Dr. Lewis Morgenstern, from the University of Michigan Medical School and School of Public Health (Ann Arbor, MI, USA), however, found no considerable differences between women and men in the frequency of electrocardiogram (ECG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams. The study was comprised of 220 women and 161 men, with a median age of 74.3 years, between the years of 2000 and 2002.

The study follows earlier studies by the same group that demonstrated female stroke patients took more time to go to the hospital than did the men, and once there, they were not seen as rapidly as the men. More women die of stroke than men, according to Dr. Morgenstern; 61% of deaths caused by stroke occur in women in the United States yearly. At any age, men have more strokes than women; however, because women live longer, they have a higher total health burden than men, according to Dr. Morgenstern.




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