Researchers have determined that postmenopausal women have specific independent risk factors that drive their incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) and being African American is one of them.
African-American women had a significant 61% increased risk of SCD compared with other races, after all known risk factors and sociodemographic risk factors were accounted for, according to Monica L. Bertoia, MPH, PhD, of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues.
Of the 418 women who experienced SCD, investigators identified these characteristics, in addition to traditional risk factors, that put them at increased risk:
- African-American race
- Higher pulse
- Higher waist-to-hip ratio
- Elevated white blood cell count
- Heart failure
Interestingly, coronary artery disease was not previously diagnosed in nearly half of the women who experienced SCD, researchers wrote in the study published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Bertoia and colleagues noted the growing population of postmenopausal women whose risk of cardiovascular events increases with age.
They also emphasized the dearth of data regarding women and SCD because they have been historically underrepresented in SCD studies and have fewer events than men. Consequently, little is known about factors that influence SCD in women.
22/11/2012 : By Chris Kaiser / MedPage Today
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