Book excerpt: Heart disease is the leading cause of death among US women over the age of 65, resulting in more deaths than all forms of cancer combined. Women are less likely to survive heart attacks than are men, possibly because symptoms in women may differ and may be less recognizable. In addition, women consistently tend to have worse clinical outcomes in percutaneous coronary interventions than do men. For these reasons, an issue on percutaneous interventions in women is timely.