More younger women with severe heart attack

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MunichMore and more women suffer from severe heart attacks at a young age. They are threatened with long-term damage - or even death.

"The percentage distribution of age groups has shifted towards younger age groups, especially among women, since 1999," said Dr. Jens-Uwe Röhnisch from Vivantes Klinikum Hellersdorf in Berlin at an annual meeting of the German Cardiac Society.

Fifteen years ago, ten percent of women with severe STEMI-type infarction were younger than 55 years; it is now 17 percent. A large number of heart muscle cells perish in an infarction of this type. The consequences are often severe long-term damage to the heart, cardiac arrhythmias or even death. A STEMI is associated with typical EKG changes and must be treated in a cardiac catheterization laboratory as quickly as possible.

Main cause of cigarettes

According to experts, the main reason for the increasing number of serious heart attacks in this age group is that women are consuming more and more cigarettes. "Smoking is at a very high level of 80 percent among under 55-year-olds with STEMI," says Röhnisch.

The experts see a further cause that more and more younger women are overweight. With them, too, the risk of premature calcification of the arteries (arteriosclerosis) and thus of a heart attack is particularly high.

Both factors promote atherosclerosis - the main cause of a heart attack. The earlier the vessels constrict and calcify, the greater the risk of suffering a heart attack at a young age. Because arteriosclerosis also affects the coronary vessels, which supply the heart with blood. The more calcifications these vessels have, the more serious the heart attack can be.

Higher survival rate

But there is also good news. The treatment of such severe heart attacks has become more and more successful over the past 15 years. The comprehensive supply of cardiac catheterization laboratories as well as the effective drug therapy would have impressively reduced hospital mortality regardless of age and gender.

Now it is important to “concentrate on prevention, especially among younger women,” said Röhnisch. Above all, these include lifestyle factors such as physical activity, a healthy diet, weight management - and, of course, not smoking. In addition, you should also have regular health checks carried out, during which, among other things, the blood lipid and blood sugar levels can be checked.

Heart attacks are very common in industrialized countries. According to statistics from the Robert Koch Institute, around 280,000 people in Germany suffer from myocardial infarction every year. (cf)

Sources:

Press release German Society for Cardiology, April 8th, 2015

DGK abstract V1631. 15 Year Heart Attack Registry Data - Is There a Change in Risk Profile in STEMI Patients

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