Women undergo fewer tests for stroke than men

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Women are less likely to undergo the standard diagnostic tests for Stroke than men, according to a study of nearly 400 stroke patients in southeast Texas.

Dr. Lewis B. Morgenstern reported at the meeting of the American Academy of Neurology that only 60 percent of women who suffered a stroke underwent carotid ultrasound examination of the neck arteries compared with 71 percent of men. Similarly, 48 percent of women had an ultrasound examination of the heart looking for blood clots that could travel to the brain, compared with 57 percent of men.

Morgenstern, of the University of Michigan Medical School and School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, and colleagues found no significant differences between men and women in the frequency of brain MRI and EKG testing.

The study involved 161 men and 220 women, with an average age of 74.3 years, representing all stroke patients in the Texas community of Corpus Christi between 2000 and 2002.

The study follows previous research by the same group that showed female stroke patients took more time to reach the hospital than their male counterparts and, once there, they were not seen as quickly.

“I still think there is a bias in this country—that people believe that stroke is a disease of men; therefore they are unlikely to evaluate women to the same extent and rigor that they would for men,” Morgenstern speculated.

He added that more women die of stroke than men—61 percent of deaths due to stroke occur in women in the United States each year.

At any given age, men have more strokes than women, Morgenstern said, but because women live longer, they have a higher total health burden than men. 

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