Leaders in heart disease treatment gathered in Washington, DC, last week to discuss gender disparities in women with heart disease and how the efforts of physicians, trialists, and patient, regulatory and industry groups can be harnessed to improve treatment outcomes in women.

New research shows that women undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), also known as angioplasty, exhibit more co-morbidities and cardiovascular risk factors than men. Risk-adjusted analyses have now indicated that, in the contemporary era, gender is not an independent mortality predictor following PCI according to the study now available in Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI).