Name change proposal for women's heart disease to IHD

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ISCHEMIC HEART DISEASE (IHD instead of CHD, coronary artery disease)

"Medical experts are proposing a name change for women’s heart disease, and this proposal was quickly part of the conversation on Inspire, our free online support Web site for women with heart disease. Why the name change — and to what? A team of cardiologists, led by C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, FACC, director of the Women's Heart Center at the Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, have concluded that women are inadequately treated for heart attack because the current terminology focuses on coronary heart disease (CHD), which may only affect half of female patients.

The report, which was published in October in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, suggests that the term "ischemic heart disease" or IHD should be used to pinpoint problems in reduced blood flow to small arteries — which affects 25 percent to 50 percent of all women heart disease patients. By contrast, CHD is defined as the obstruction of major coronary vessels. By using an angiogram, doctors can discover the presence of CHD, but IHD cannot be identified through the traditional angiogram. The doctors associated with the study believe that something as simple as a name change can provide faster diagnosis and treatment for women, and may impact heart disease mortality rates, which are currently higher for women than for men.

The importance of the name change was not lost on the Heart Sisters chatting on Inspire, who especially noted a comment by Nieca Goldberg, MD, a cardiologist and spokeswoman for the American Heart Association who is also director of the New York University Langone Medical Center Women's Heart Center: "Just because your angiogram is normal doesn't mean you aren't having ischemic symptoms." As one Heart Sister commented, "It addresses those women who, like me, had initial cardiac tests that were 'normal' in spite of having severe cardiac symptoms. Just recently, my cardiologist has also diagnosed me with microvascular disease. This is actually GOOD NEWS because it sure helps to explain a lot of the ongoing symptoms that have been puzzling us since day one - despite 'normal' tests."

So what’s in a name? A lot! Read more about His and Hers Heart Disease.

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