Women derive twice the benefit from a device to treat heart failure as men, U.S. researchers said on Monday, underscoring the different ways in which men and women experience heart disease. Women treated with a combination pacemaker and defibrillator device had a 70% reduction in heart failure compared with a 35% decline in men, they said. "Our finding was unexpected, but extremely important because this is the only heart treatment that is clearly better in women than men," Dr. Arthur Moss, MD, of the University of Rochester Medical Center, whose study appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, said in a statement. The findings come from a large Boston Scientific study of cardiac resynchronization therapy known as MADIT-CRT, in which a pacemaker is used to restore normal coordinated heart beats in people whose damaged hearts are less efficient at pumping blood.
