GE’s Marquette 12SL Gender Specific Criteria

It has been noted that cardiovascular diseases account for roughly 12 million deaths every year, while also being the most collective, severe, and chronic life-threatening illnesses. While coronary artery disease was once perceived as a disease of men, it is now the leading cause of death in women. One in nine women between the age of forty-five and sixty-one years old has a clinical disease, while women are three times more likely to have a clinical disease if they are over the age of sixty-five.

In 1990, there was roughly 25% of recorded deaths that were caused from coronary heart disease. It is also notable to add that while heart disease mortality has been decreasing among men, it has been increasing in women. There can be several reasons attributed to this increase, and one of the most plausible is misdiagnoses in identifying those with high-risk of cardiovascular disease.

With men and women both suffering from cardiovascular diseases, it is absolutely necessary to ensure patients are being diagnosed properly. In the cardiology world, electrocardiograms (ECG) are proven as a reliable and valued diagnostic means of identifying heart disease. However, there have been differences among men and women in how their ECG readings are to be interpreted. GE’s Marquette 12SL Algorithm was upgraded in the year 2000 to better give accurate ECG readings among genders.

The Marquette 12SL’s Gender-Specific interpretation applies specific criteria for gauging the ST segment and T-wave of the ECG waveform, which helps to progress the sensitivity of acute myocardial infarction among women and enhancing assurance in a more precise diagnosis. There is a 25% relative advance in exposure of acute inferior MI in women under the age of 60 without having to sacrifice the high specificity already upheld by the algorithm. There is also a comparative 42% to 48% improvement in sensitivity for detection of acute anterior MI in women under the age of 60.

It is easy to see that the need for accurate ECG readings is the matter between life and death. GE’s improvement to their Marquette 12SL Algorithm with the Gender-Specific Criteria is essential to any cardiology practitioner.

Resources:

Adnrew PSelwyn, Eugene Braunwald. Harrisons Principles of Internal Medicine. 15th ed. Vol 2. USA: McGrow-Hill Co; 2001. Ischemic Heart Disease; pp. 1399–410.

Thorn TJ: Cardiovascular disease mortality among United States women. In Curonup Heart Disease in Wonien (Eds. Eaker ED, Packard B, Wenger NK. Clarkson TE3, Tyroler HA), p. 33-41. New York: Haymarket Doyma Inc., 1987

Khane, Rupali Sachin, and Anil D. Surdi. “Gender Differences in the Prevalence of Electrocardiogram Abnormalities in the Elderly: A Population Survey in India.” Advancesin Pediatrics., U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3470073/.

Frishman, William H., et al. “Differences between Male and Female Patients with Regard to Baseline Demographics and Clinical Outcomes in the Asymptomatic Cardiac Ischemia Pilot (Acip) Trial.” Clinical Cardiology, vol. 21, no. 3, 1998, pp. 184–190., doi:10.1002/clc.4960210310.