worrying rise in cardiovascular disease in women

THE ESSENTIAL

• Cardiovascular disease consultations decreased during confinement
• Cardiologists face increased myocardial infarction and stroke
• Women are particularly affected

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Many French people deserted medical services during confinement for fear of being infected with Covid-19. According to a recent Ipsos survey, 51% of them gave up at least one medical consultation in town or in the hospital and 46% did not go to a scheduled appointment with their general practitioner (28%) or specialist (26%) .

A trend that was observed in patients with diabetes (52% versus 51% for all chronic patients), cancer (51%), respiratory disease (52%) or high blood pressure (51 %).

Untreated cardiovascular disease

Unfortunately, the consequences are beginning to be seen, especially among cardiologists who are facing a worrying increase in cardiovascular diseases, especially among women. Asked about Europe 1 in early April, Professor Pierre Amarenco, neurologist at the Bichât hospital in Paris, said that the drop in admissions for stroke, AIT or infarction was “in the range of 50 to 70% “ in Île-de-France.

“People who have symptoms of heart attack wait a day, or even a week, before calling 15 when we only have 3 hours to save the heart muscle! ”, also worried Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier, cardiologist, head of the vascular medicine and hypertension department at the Lille University Hospital, in a press release from the foundation Acting for the Heart.

Since the end of containment, cardiologists have observed an increase in myocardial infarction and stroke in women. “Women are more sensitive than men to traditional risk factors, she explained to France Bleu on May 26. During confinement, they experienced a sedentary lifestyle, they ate less well, probably more smoked for smokers. There was a stress related to telework or precariousness. It is also necessary to make the school at the house for the children, and to take care of the house. It’s a real cocktail to cause heart accidents. ”

The importance of acting within three hours

Commonly known as a “heart attack”, myocardial infarction is the partial destruction of the heart muscle, due to the blockage of an artery that supplies the heart with blood, and therefore oxygen. This is an extremely urgent situation requiring rapid treatment. “If an infarction is not treated within three hours, the heart muscle is dead ”, alerts the specialist. In France, 80,000 myocardial infarctions are recorded each year and eabout 10% of victims die within an hour.

As Inserm points out, “thanks to therapeutic progress, the speed of intervention of the Samu (provided that he is called quickly) and the increased availability of interventional cardiology units operational 24/7, the 30-day mortality rate has dropped from 10.2% in 1995 to 2.1% in 2015. ”

Unfortunately, the health crisis we are facing and the containment measures have changed the trend: “The catastrophic infarctions, which we saw in the time when we did not treat cardiology, we receive one to two per week at this time, laments Claire Mounier-Vehier. So in fact, it’s a time bomb. One has the impression of returning to the prehistory of cardio. ”

Signs that should alert

The cardiovascular symptoms that should alert and prompt you to dial 15 urgently are:

– chest pressure (or sharp chest pain that radiates to the left arm, back and jaw)

– palpitations

– sudden shortness of breath

– a feeling of embarrassment, anxiety

– nausea and / or dizziness

– persistent fatigue

Remember that smokers, sedentary people, prone to stress, suffering from hypertension, obesity, diabetes, orhypercholesterolemia are more at risk for developing cardiovascular disease. Certain genetic predispositions, age and sex can also be taken into account.

“Women are four times less likely to have a heart attack than men, before menopause, specifies Inserm. However, the proportion of young women who suffer from it tends to increase, in particular due to the increase in smoking and obesity in this population. The risks are equal for men and women after menopause. ”

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