Chest pain (angina) is often caused by a lack of oxygen from restricted blood flow to the heart. This reduced blood flow is often the result of coronary artery disease, which is a chronic disease in which there is a "hardening" (atherosclerosis) of the coronary arteries and diminished blood flow.

Researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles looked at cases from 883 women over five years in order to gather data for the report. The patient information was taken from the Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE), a multi-center study launched in 1996 that is funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The research found that women with obstructive coronary artery disease typically have related costs that total more than $1 million. Women with unobstructed coronary artery disease still have costs totalling $767,288 on average.

The report cited direct costs as having the biggest monetary impact on patients. These direct costs include hospitalizations, coronary interventions, outpatient testing, and visits to health care professionals. However, indirect costs can also have a significant financial impact. Indirect costs include hours lost from work for health care, estimated reduced productivity hours, transportation charges, and the costs of drugs and medical devices.

Both direct and indirect costs were included in the report's total cost figures.

"Total cumulative costs were higher for women who have two or three blocked vessels, due largely to the number of outpatient visits and procedures performed. But women with nonobstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) or one blocked artery had proportionately higher drug costs, which resulted in higher indirect costs," said Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz, chair of the Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation, in a recent press release.

The results of the report were published in the August 29 issue of Circulation.

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