Incidence of myocardial infarction and risk factors in young women
Elian, D.; Behar, S.; Neufeld, H.N.
Harefuah 110(11): 545-547
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0017-7768 PMID: 3770576 Document Number: 278203
Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a rare disease in young women. Aside from the known risk factors for atherosclerotic disease, other mechanisms have been proposed to explain the occurrence of the disease in young women. In an 11-year survey there were 30 young women among 5000 cases hospitalized for AMI. The same incidence of AMI in young women was found in a secondary prevention study after AMI in 14 centers in Israel (SPRINT), namely one-thirteenth that in men in the same age group. The reasons for this very much lower rate are not known. The known risk factors, especially smoking, were present at a much higher rate in the young women with AMI as compared with healthy young women. All the young women except one were premenopausal when the AMI occurred. 14 of them had an additional diseases, such as chronic lung disease (6 cases) peripheral vascular disease (3) or rheumatic arthritis (3). Three of the five women catheterized had normal coronary arteries.