News: Women-specific goalposts may close disparities after CABG, study shows

Sex-specific biomarker thresholds for perioperative myocardial injury may be able to address gender disparities in outcomes after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), according to a recent study published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. When compared with men, women showed a tendency to release less high-sensitivity cardiac troponin and creatine kinase-myocardial band after bypass surgery, but experienced more 30-day major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) than men, MedPage Today reported.

In the study, researchers defined MACE as the composite of myocardial infarction, all-cause mortality, and repeat revascularization within 30 days. Similar to previous studies’ findings, 4.5% of the women in the study experienced 30-day MACE compared to 2.4% of men, and 3.0% of women experienced 30-day mortality compared to 1.3% of men.

“Between a general troponin cutoff of 206.07 times upper reference limit (URL) and a female-specific cutoff of 94.36 times URL,” women who missed the general cutoff but not the female-specific cutoff were at increased risk of MACE and death when compared with others who stayed below both thresholds, MedPage Today reported.

“We believe identifying underdiagnosed perioperative myocardial infarction early in women might counteract the care disparity we obviously still have after CABG surgery,” the authors wrote.

Editor’s note: To read MedPage Today’s coverage of this story, click here. To read the study, click here.