Philips will unveil 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, where symptoms may be different from men. The PageWriter TC50 will have its global launch at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2009, at Barcelona, Spain.

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 percent 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 percent 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 percent 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 men1 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 company’s latest advance is the PageWriter TC50 cardiograph which allows healthcare professionals to easily and efficiently take and record ECGs – tests of heart activity – assisting the clinician in making a timely diagnosis. 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.

“Philips understands that heart disease can be different in women than in men and also harder to detect,” commented Joris van den Hurk, vice president of cardiology programs for Philips Healthcare. “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, to improve the early detection of heart disease in women.”

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.