SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Women who were referred to an electrophysiologist were just as likely as men to get an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), but women developed more complications and were less likely to receive an appropriate ICD shock or appropriate ICD-delivered therapy, a study of 6,902 patients found.
Previous studies have suggested that women are less likely than men are to get ICDs. If that’s true, the disparity may be happening before patients are referred for consideration of ICD implantation, Dr. Derek R. MacFadden said at the annual meeting of the American College of Physicians.
He and his associates analyzed data from a prospective registry of all 6,902 patients in the province of Ont., Canada, who were referred for consideration of an ICD or had one implanted between February 2007 and July 2010. Men and women were equally likely to be among the 5,450 patients who received ICDs and the 571 who did not receive ICDs (because they did not meet implantation criteria, refused implantation, or deferred a decision until after therapy could be optimized), reported Dr. MacFadden of the University of Toronto. The analysis excluded 881 patients with missing data.
Previous studies have reported higher risks for complications in women who get ICDs, as well as sex differences in arrhythmia patterns after implantation. Follow-up data on complications at 45 days in the current study were available in 4,830 patients, and an analysis of outcomes and complications at 1 year included 5,213 patients (Ann. Intern. Med. 2012;156:195-203).