Women who have had a heart attack get as much survival benefit as men from implanted cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), devices designed to monitor the heart's pumping rhythm and shock it back to normal when needed, according to a study published in the December edition of the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology.
ICDs are designed to counter arrhythmias, electrical malfunctions that throw the heart out of rhythm and are a major cause of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in 450,000 Americans each year. Many confuse SCD with heart attack, a crisis brought on when a blocked artery damages heart muscle. The two problems come together when scar tissue left behind by a heart attack interferes with the heart's electrical system, bringing on arrhythmia.
Beta blockers in combination with ACE-inhibitors and statins are the treatment of choice for heart attack survivors, but fail to reduce risk of arrhythmia in many cases. ICDs have been gaining ground since the 2002 MADIT II study (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial II) found that the devices could reduce mortality by 31 percent in patients who had a heart attack. Led out of the University of Rochester Medical Center, the landmark study changed medical guidelines nationwide and made a hundred thousand heart attack survivors eligible for ICD therapy.