Include more women in studies

BERLIN, Aug 02, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Scientists are urging designers of heart disease trials to recruit enough women test subjects to show whether females respond to drugs differently than men.

Dr. Verena Stangl, senior author of a study at Charite Hospital in Berlin, said she and her team determined women are under-represented in most clinical studies, so the data and the results are less well documented for them.

Stangl, a professor of cardiology molecular atherosclerosis at the hospital, said although the percentage of women in studies of coronary heart disease has risen since the mid 1980s, they are still under-represented in trials involving coronary artery disease, arterial hypertension and heart failure.

"It is essential that trials are designed to provide the necessary data so that researchers know from the outset that they will be able to analyze factors that could contribute to different outcomes for men and women, such as hormonal aspects, possible effects of drug dosage and known differences in biochemical and physiological responses between men and women," said Stangl.

She said conclusions for women are mostly reached retrospectively via subgroup, post hoc or meta-analyses, which she says is unacceptable.

The research appears online in the European Heart Journal.