Women suffering from diabetes are at much higher risk of eventually developing cardiovascular problems in Middle Age, two different studies have claimed.

The first study, conducted by Giuseppe Seghieri, MD, of Agenzia Regionale Sanità, in Italy, was presented at annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes this year.

It involved over three million Tuscany residents aged above 16. Among these, 47% were males. The findings of the study suggested that diabetic women were at higher risk of hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction (MI) as compared to men.

The second study which was presented at the same session, but conducted by Xue Dong, at the Affiliated Zhongda Hospital of Southeast University, in Nanjing, China, found women at higher risk of acute coronary syndrome.

The team assessed relative risk of acute coronary syndrome in men and women with diabetes. They took into account the health records of nine case-control and 10 cohort studies pertaining data for nearly 11 million people.

In the present study, the risk of acute coronary syndrome associated with diabetes in women and men was of 2.46 and 1.68, respectively.

In the first study, the level of risk in diabetic women varied with age. The women aged between 55 and 64 were at higher risk of hospitalization.

"With respect to MI, diabetic women are more disadvantaged, compared to diabetic men, with a gender driven 'risk window' which mostly opens in the perimenopausal age," wrote the authors.