Philips has unveiled its latest advance in heart disease detection, the PageWriter TC50 cardiograph, which uses gender-differentiated criteria to assist in the diagnosis of heart disease in women.

The PageWriter TC50 had its global launch at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2009, being held in Barcelona from August 29 to September 2.

Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death in women in all countries of Europe. One in five European women die from coronary heart disease each year and by 2020 coronary heart disease among women globally will have increased by 120 per cent from the levels of 1990.

Women are more likely than men to have a second heart attack within six years of the first and are 50 per cent more likely than men to die in the first year after a heart attack.

Tests for diagnosing coronary artery disease have been traditionally developed and tested in men. For example women make up only 38 per cent of the participants in cardiovascular studies funded by the National Institutes of Health in the US.

But women with coronary artery disease often complain of different symptoms from men and show clinical differences as well, with damage more often occurring in smaller blood vessels with fewer arterial blockages, a condition called microvascular disease. As a result, more women than men with heart conditions can show normal vessels in spite of their worsening symptoms. Negative or unclear tests in women can often mean heart disease goes missed and untreated.

Philips has been developing diagnostic tools which take gender differences into account since the 1970s.

The PageWriter TC50’s sophisticated analysis programme, the DXL Algorithm, uses different criteria for men and women to help clinicians interpret cardiac symptoms, including identifying acute global ischemia, the restrictions of blood supply to large areas of the heart.

“We work closely with leading healthcare organizations, patients and clinicians to continually increase our understanding of heart disease in women so that we can develop solutions, such as the PageWriter TC50 and the DXL Algorithm,” stated Joris van den Hurk, vice president of cardiology programs for Philips Healthcare.

Philips is the first company to provide healthcare professionals with comprehensive diagnostic tools which respond to recommendations by the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology Foundation and the Heart Rhythm Society for myocardial infarction and acute ischemia, including gender and age-specific criteria, he added.-TradeArabia News Service