Trends in heart mortality reversing in younger women
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Coronary heart disease mortality in younger women could be on the rise, according to findings in the open access journal, BMC Public Health, published by BioMed Central. High levels of smoking, increasing obesity and a lack of exercise could all be contributing to this disturbing trend, seen in women under the age of 50.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common cause of death in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. It occurs when the arteries supplying blood to the heart narrow, and includes disorders such as heart attacks and angina.
Steven Allender from the University of Oxford and colleagues from the University of Liverpool, UK studied information on all deaths in England and Wales between 1931 and 2005. They examined how CHD mortality rates had changed over time, for different sexes and age groups.
Largest study to date finds benefits of ICDs in children
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More and more children with congenital heart disease are receiving implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) to maintain proper heart rhythm. ICDs were first introduced for adults in the 1980s, but little is known about how well they work in children, who account for less than 1 percent of recipients. A report in the April 29 Journal of the American College of Cardiology summarizes the largest pediatric experience to date. It finds the devices to be life-saving, but also suggests that they tend to deliver more inappropriate shocks to children than to adults, making it important to watch children with ICDs closely.
The researchers, led by Charles Berul, MD, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Children’s Hospital Boston, analyzed data from 443 patients who received implants between 1992 and 2004 at one of four pediatric centers. The study included both pediatric heart patients and adults with congenital heart disease. The median age was 16 years (range, 0 to 54).
