How Gender and Body Size Gaps in Guidelines Put Women at Risk for Heart Condition? Study Finds Out - Video

Women may be missing a diagnosis of a potentially deadly heart condition due to guidelines that don't account for natural differences in sex and body size, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. The findings are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology

When they tested their updated approach in 1,600 patients with clinically diagnosed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the researchers found that it was particularly beneficial for women, increasing identification by 20 percentage points.

The new method takes people's age, sex and size into account to determine whether their heart muscle is dangerously large. As well as preventing people being missed, it could also reduce the number of people mis-diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

The team used an AI tool they developed to analyse MRI heart scans with greater precision and in much less time than a human can. The tool was given 5,000 MRI scans of healthy hearts and measured the thickness of the left ventricle wall in each. From these data, the researchers were able to determine what normal ventricle wall thickness is for people of different ages, sexes, and sizes.

This allowed them to set thresholds for abnormal wall thickness. After testing the accuracy of the new thresholds in the group of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients, the researchers applied them, as well as the current 15 mm cut-off, to a group of over 43,000 participants in the UK Biobank.

For every eight people identified with possible hypertrophic cardiomyopathy using the current threshold, only one was a woman. People identified were also much taller, heavier and older than the population average.

When the new personalised thresholds were applied instead, the overall number of people identified was lower, suggesting fewer misdiagnoses. Importantly, there was a much more even split between men and women -- with women making up 44% of those identified.

Reference: https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2025/01/08/pct-blood-test-does-not-lower-antibiotic-treatment-duration-for-hospitalised-children-study-shows/