Washington, DC, February 13, 2011 — In a nationwide conference call February 18, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke to the issue of women and heart disease, revealing she had lost her own mother at age 75 from heart failure. Sec. Sebelius promoted the Affordable Care Act and the Heart for Women Act.

Lori Mosca, MD, MPH, PhD, was later introduced to reveal the new guidelines for women. "They are now called 'Effectiveness-based Guidelines' as this represents a paradigm shift toward prevention", she said. She and an expert panel has been working with the AHA to update guidelines for the past 20 years, she said. The guidelines are set forth with the goal to reduce risk in women from 20 per cent to 10 per cent. The panel looked at barriers that physicians and patients face, and looked to open dialogue.

The committee recognizes while death rates of heart disease have decreased in both men and women, more younger women are getting the disease. Also, disparities in care continue. The guidelines now include risk not previously attributed to possible signs of heart disease in younger women. For this reason, the panel added pregnancy and pregnancy complications, with women to be monitored if there is pre-eclampsia with high blood pressure during pregnancy, diabetes, pre-term birth, bleeding in the 3rd trimester, or delivery of a small birth weight baby.

Promoted as "Living Guidelines" go to Guidelines

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