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Study shows difference in heart attack risk between genders

11/30/11

A study presented recently at the Radiological Society of North America showed there are different risks that lead to heart disease in men and women.

Coronary artery disease is when blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart narrow, which is caused by a build-up of fat and other substances that form plaque on the walls of vessels.

Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina studied coronary results on 480 patients with the average age of 55 who had acute chest pains. Sixty-five percent of the patients were men.

The researchers used a coronary CT angiography, which tests coronary arteries for blockage.

"We found that the risks for cardiovascular events associated with plaque were significantly different between women and men," said Dr. John Nance Jr., a radiology resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

The results showed that women with a large amount of plaque build-up are at a greater risk for cardiovascular issues than men. However, when analyzing the presence of individual types of plaques, the risk for major cardiac issues was more prevalent in men.

These findings may encourage Americans with a history of heart disease in their family to invest in life insurance, considering the American Heart Association statistic that a heart attack occurs every 34 seconds in the country.

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