BioNexus: Saint Luke's Cardiologist Battles Leading Killer of Women

Women have long impacted medicine, clinical research, and healthcare, but only recently have gender differences in disease been a driver towards change. Dr. Tracy Stevens, Cardiologist and Medical Director of Saint Luke's Muriel I. Kauffman Women's Heart Center, applies her focus to empowering women about their cardiovascular health.

Heart disease and stroke kill more women than all forms of cancer combined, yet most modern coronary treatment is based on research studies where women were underrepresented or absent. This is because experts used to believe that this was just a disease for men, but now they recognize that there are symptom differences in women's heart attack or heart conditions versus men. Specifically, there are unique conditions that happen predominately in women. One of them is Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD), the number one cause of heart attack for women under 50 in the United States. What is even more unique is that it doesn't follow the causation of a traditional heart attack, where there is plaque buildup and a blockage. With SCAD, healthy women with no risk factors are showing up in the Emergency Room with heart attacks.

Read the full BioNexus article.

Saint Luke's Health System. Dr. Tracy Stevens

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