Cardiovascular disease (CVD), specifi cally coronary heart disease (CHD), is the leading cause of death in women and men.
Approximately 6 million females in the United States have CHD, and more than 250,000 women die each year from CHD [1]. Over
a lifetime, 1 in 2.6 women will die of CVD, and 1 in 30 women will die of breast cancer [1].
In women, there is a 10-year delay in the incidence of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) compared with aged-matched
males and a 20-year delay in the incidence of major CHD events such as myocardial infarction (MI) and death [1]. The prevalence
of CAD is low in women before menopause, but it begins to equal the prevalence in men at about the seventh decade of life
[1]. Over the years, overall deaths from CVD have progressively declined [2]. In men, the decline in CVD deaths has been steady;
however, in women, death rates from CVD actually increased over time until the year 2000, after which they began to decline
[1].