Mortality caused by acute myocardial infarction in Qatari women: Figure 1

The long held belief that coronary heart disease (CHD) in women has a more benign prognosis than in men has resulted in less aggressive diagnosis and management patterns. Contrary to this belief, CHD is the leading cause of death in white women aged 60 years or older in the USA and outnumbers the next 16 causes of death in women combined, including cancers. Furthermore, since 1980, death from CHD has declined dramatically in men in the western world but has increased in women.1 With the recent recognition of this problem, considerable interest has been focused on the study of sex based differences in the outcome of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the western world. Several studies have compared the outcome of women and men with AMI, with conflicting data.2–5 The majority of these studies have been performed in western populations and so may not necessarily apply to other ethnic groups such as the Middle Eastern population. The aim of the present study was to determine the clinical characteristics and in-hospital mortality from AMI in Qatari women. This study was based at Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar, which is the only tertiary care centre in the country and so all patients with AMI are treated here. The Hamad General Hospital cardiology database was used for this …