Marian C. Limacher

What Prevents Women from Participating in Research Studies

Despite increased attention to recruitment, women continue to be underrepresented in cardiovascular clinical trials. To gain a better understanding of women’s willingness to participate in clinical trials, investigators conducted a randomized study involving patients seen at 1 of 13 internal medicine and cardiology clinics in Maryland. Four hundred women and 383 men …

Waist-to-Hip Ratio: Better Than BMI for Predicting Cardiovascular Events in High-Risk Women

Body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) has limitations in predicting risk for cardiovascular events; waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist circumference (WC) might

Hot Flashes Might Bring More Than Sweating

Menopause is thought to exacerbate risk for cardiovascular (CV) disease; however, in randomized trials involving older women, hormone therapy did not lead to worse CV outcomes. Some have criticized these findings because women who take HT to treat menopausal symptoms are unlikely to participate in studies that require discontinuing it. In a prospective cohort study, Dutch researchers assessed cardiac risk factor …

Walking Speed and Stroke Risk

Many factors are associated with risk for stroke. To confirm previous findings in a single cohort of older men and women that slow walking speed is a

Drug-Eluting Stents Benefit Women as Well as Men

Initially, angioplasty study results suggested poorer outcomes for women than for men; moreover, subsequent reports about the performance of bare-metal

Blood Pressure and Risk for Developing Diabetes

Hypertension, obesity, and diabetes often occur together, but the relation between blood pressure and diabetes is not well defined. Researchers for the Women’s Health Study analyzed data from more than 38,000 women (health professionals older than 45) to determine whether baseline BP and BP progression were associated independently with the development of type 2 diabetes. Women self-reported BP at baseline and every 6 months and were asked annually whether they …

Pravastatin and Primary Prevention of Cardiac Events in Women

Despite the well-established benefits of statin therapy in reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in men and in individuals with established coronary heart disease (CHD), the benefits of statins for primary CVD prevention have not been established in women. Investigators in Japan included more than 5000 postmenopausal women (68% of the total study population) in a randomized trial of diet alone (National Cholesterol Education Program step I) or …

Testosterone, Blood Pressure, and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) exhibit a number of metabolic and hemodynamic features that place them at high risk for cardiovascular

Less Sleep = More Hypertension

The likelihood of developing hypertension is inversely related to nightly sleep duration. To further explore that relation, researchers conducted a

Does Female Sex Influence Stroke Recovery

The effect of sex on rehabilitation for stroke has been debated. To evaluate sex differences, Italian investigators compared 440 first-time ischemic