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Lifesaving Heart Device Given More Often To Male Patients

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Los Angeles Times

Published: October 3, 2007

Elderly male heart patients are two to three times more likely than female patients to receive implanted devices that shock a malfunctioning heart back into normal rhythms, and white men are about a third more likely than black men to receive them, researchers reported today.

Overall, only about a third of patients who are eligible for the potentially lifesaving implanted cardioverter-defibrillators are getting them, according to two studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The devices 'save lives, so the sex difference in treatment rates is worrisome,' said Lesley H. Curtis, a health economist at Duke University Medical Center and lead author of one of the studies.

'We don't know why the difference exists, but we do know that this is bad news for women,' added co-author Kevin A. Schulman of Duke, a health policy expert.

As many as 450,000 Americans die each year when the electrical signals that initiate heartbeats become erratic, interfering with the organ's ability to pump blood through the body. The devices monitor the electrical impulses and, when they become irregular, shock the heart back into normal rhythms.

Clinical trials have shown that the devices, which are about the size of a cigarette pack and cost $30,000 to $40,000 to implant, can prolong life in 31 percent to 50 percent of patients who receive them.

Previous research has shown a disparity between use of the devices in men and women, but had suggested the gap was closing. Today's study, however, indicates it is getting wider.

A second study at Duke found black men were 73 percent as likely to receive the device as white men, white women were 62 percent as likely and black women were 56 percent as likely. Overall, 35 percent of eligible patients received the devices.

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