Thursday, March 08, 2007

Any ECG Abnormality Is Suspicious for Postmenopausal Women

CHICAGO, March 8 -- Any abnormal ECG finding was an independent predictor of myocardial infarction, stroke, and coronary heart disease death in asymptomatic postmenopausal women, according to researchers here.
A post hoc analysis of data from more than 14,700 women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative revealed that minor ECG abnormalities increased the risk of coronary heart disease by 55%, while major ECG abnormalities were associated with a three-fold increase in risk, said Pablo Denes, M.D., of Northwestern.
Women who developed new ECG abnormalities during the study had a hazard ratio of 2.60 (95% CI, 1.08-6.27) for coronary heart disease events and 2.86 (95% CI 1.69-4.83) for cardiovascular disease events, Dr. Denes and colleagues reported in the March 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Moreover, the risk associated with ECG abnormalities was incremental, so that when the ECG data were factored in to Framingham risk scores the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) increased form 0.69 to 0.74, he said.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/CoronaryArteryDisease/tb1/5219

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