PCOS features associated with increased postmenopausal CV risk
Source: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 2008; Advance online publication
Evaluating the risk for cardiovascular events in postmenopausal women with a history of irregular menses and evidence of hyperandrogenemia.
MedWire News: Researchers recommend assessing for clinical features of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in postmenopausal women, after finding a greater risk for coronary artery disease (CAD) and cardiovascular (CV) events in this group of women.
Leslee Shaw (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, USA) and colleagues found that postmenopausal women meeting criteria for PCOS had a 2.5-fold increased risk for obstructive CAD and a 3.3-fold increased risk for CV death or myocardial infarction (MI).
"Identification of clinical features of PCOS, in postmenopausal women, may provide an opportunity for risk factor intervention for the prevention of CAD and CV events," they say.
The researchers evaluated the risk for CV events in 390 postmenopausal, among whom 104 had the clinical PCOS features of a premenstrual history of irregular menses and current biochemical evidence of hyperandrogenemia.
Women with clinical features of PCOS were more likely than those without these features to be diabetic, obese, and to have the metabolic syndrome.
Moreover, cumulative 5-year CV event-free survival was just 78.9 percent for women with clinical features of PCOS compared with 88.7 percent for women without such features.
PCOS remained a significant contributing factor to CV events after taking into account diabetes, waist circumference, and angiographic CAD.
The team suggests that "the combination of hyperandrogenemia with a substantial cardiac risk factor burden and postmenopausal drop in endogenous estrogen provides the atherogenic milieu to increase cardiac risk."
Posted: 03 April 2008
source:
http://www.orgyn.com/en/news/2008/We...95421081018519
PCOS features associated with increased postmenopausal CV risk 
