3 Million U.S. Women at Higher Risk of Heart Attack
Judy Peres
Chicago Tribune
___________
Up to 3 million U.S. women are at higher risk of heart attack because they have coronary disease that does not show up on standard tests, the National Institutes of Health reported Tuesday.These women don't have significant blockages in major arteries.
Instead, cholesterol plaque is spread evenly throughout the cells lining the arteries or accumulates in the tiny vessels branching within the heart itself.Women with the condition, called coronary microvascular syndrome, can experience pain similar to that felt by people with blocked arteries.
But their plaque buildup does not show up on angiograms, the gold-standard test for diagnosing cardiovascular risk.As a result, women who complain of the symptoms and seek testing often are classified incorrectly as being at low risk of heart attack and sent home without treatment.
The new findings may help explain why cardiovascular disease--often thought of as a "man's disease"--actually kills about 60,000 more women than men each year in the U.S., according to the researchers, whose work appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Jan 01, 2006
Judy Peres
Chicago Tribune
___________
Up to 3 million U.S. women are at higher risk of heart attack because they have coronary disease that does not show up on standard tests, the National Institutes of Health reported Tuesday.These women don't have significant blockages in major arteries.
Instead, cholesterol plaque is spread evenly throughout the cells lining the arteries or accumulates in the tiny vessels branching within the heart itself.Women with the condition, called coronary microvascular syndrome, can experience pain similar to that felt by people with blocked arteries.
But their plaque buildup does not show up on angiograms, the gold-standard test for diagnosing cardiovascular risk.As a result, women who complain of the symptoms and seek testing often are classified incorrectly as being at low risk of heart attack and sent home without treatment.
The new findings may help explain why cardiovascular disease--often thought of as a "man's disease"--actually kills about 60,000 more women than men each year in the U.S., according to the researchers, whose work appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Jan 01, 2006
