WARRIOR Trial Studies Women's Heart Health

This article was written by Kim Moody of the Highlands News-Sun.

Doctors have known for a long time men and women have very different medical needs. That’s one reason research studies are essential when developing guidelines for care. Women’s Ischemia Trial (Warrior Trial), is to determine “whether intensive medication treatment to modify risk factors in women with chest pain is better than usual care women receive with chest pain,” according to AdventHealth Sebring. The hospital was chosen to participate in the Warrior Trials with Dr. Deepti Bhandare as the primary investigator in the Heartland area.

Annually, heart disease is the number one killer of women. Dr. Bhandare gives a couple of reasons why.

“Women are not the first people to go to the hospital or to the ER if they have symptoms or are sick because they’re caregivers, so they have to take care of the family. They will take care of their work before they think about themselves,” Dr. Bhandare said. “The second thing is women present heart disease very differently.”

Dr. Bhandare says her male patients usually present with symptoms of chest pain, shortness of breath and pressure like something is sitting on their chests.

Her female patients come in with some chest pain and tightness to the chest and back, pain in the shoulder and between the shoulders, indigestion, jaw pain or pain while chewing are also common atypical cardiac symptoms.

She said the symptoms could be easy for a primary caregiver to take for something else such as a pulled muscle from lifting something.

“Women have to be very careful about the atypical symptoms, especially if they have risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes, being overweight or if they have a very strong family history of heart disease,” Bhandare said.

During a cardiac workup, a physician may do a coronary angiogram to check for blocked arteries. Those who have 70% or more blockage, could be given stents and put on blood thinners.

“There’s a lot of population of females who have blockages less than 50%,” Dr. Bhandare said. “These patients, depending upon who’s treating them, they might be either lost to follow up, or they might be seen by a cardiologist who still believes these patients still have coronary artery disease or have some blockages and we need to put them on medical therapy.”

Dr. Bhandare said there are some cardiologists who feel it unnecessary to treat blockages under 50%.

“What has been noticed is that these women with blockages less than 50% have similar morbidity and mortality,” she said. “What it means is that similar rate of symptoms and similar rate of deaths, as compared to men and women who have had stents for blockages greater than 70%.”

Warrior Trial is being funded by the Department of Defense, as there are 200,000 women on active duty and 2 million women veterans.

“In cardiology or in any field of medicine, you always go by guidelines, and right now, there are no guidelines for women in this category,” Bhandare said.

There are about 15 patients in the program, including Michelle Leicht. Leicht is 50 and had chest and jaw pain a couple of years ago. Her cardiac workup showed nothing conclusive and minimal (10%). There was nothing to be done. Her husband Jim told her about the Warrior Trial and she has been grateful.

Even though the results of the trial won’t be known for some time yet, Leicht said she was put on three medications and has not had any chest pain since joining the trial. In her eyes, it is a success. She returns every six months or so for the follow-ups at the AdventHealth Heart Failure Clinic at 4638 Sun ‘N Lake Blvd. in Sebring. Leicht says it takes very little time to be a participant in the study. Dr. Bhandare said the patient receives $25 per visit to be in the study.

“Don’t just sit back and just say that somebody else is going to deal with it,” Leicht said. “Because that’s not what’s going to happen. You need to be proactive with your health and help other women in the future.”

She said right now everything is based on men’s anatomy but a women’s anatomy is far different. For more information on the Warrior Trial call 863-386-0055.