Med. praxi. 2014;11(6):249-253

Vascular disease in menopausal women

doc.MUDr.Michal Vrablík, Ph.D.

3. interní klinika 1. LF UK a VFN, Praha

Epidemiological data clearly show that overall cardiovascular mortality in women exceeds that in the male population. It is after menopause

that the woman's risk profile changes rapidly and, due to waning oestrogen production, there occur a number of adverse changes in humoral,

cardiovascular, and metabolic regulations, resulting in a steep increase in the overall cardiovascular risk in women. Even long-term vascular

risk in postmenopausal women can be reduced by determining the cardiovascular risk as well as actively searching for and intervening with

the major risk factors (dyslipidaemia, arterial hypertension, impaired glucose homeostasis, and smoking). In addition to lifestyle measures and

active treatment of tobacco addiction in smokers, the cornerstones of management strategies include statin intervention for dyslipidaemia,

regulating arterial hypertension by reducing the activity of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, and affecting insulin resistance with

metformin in prediabetes/type 2 diabetes. Early detection and treatment of risk factors can improve the outcomes of cardiovascular disease

prevention (not only) in the population of postmenopausal women and reduce the sustained high residual cardiovascular risk in the population.

Keywords: menopause, risk factors, cardiovascular events, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hormonal replacement therapy

Published: December 1, 2014  Show citation