Coronary artery disease killing more women under 45*

    * Story Highlights
    * Study: Coronary artery disease death rate for women 35-44 rose
1997-2002
    * Experts think increasing obesity rates a factor
    * Rates for men 35-44 relatively stable in same period
    * Overall trend positive: over-35 death rate from heart disease
halved 1980-2002

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- For decades, heart disease death rates have
been falling. But a new study shows a troubling turn -- more women under
45 are dying of heart disease due to clogged arteries, and the death
rate for men that age has leveled off.
art.women.heart.graphic.jpg

Heart experts aren't sure what went wrong, but they think increasing
rates of obesity and other risk factors are to blame.

The rates will have to be monitored to see whether this is the beginning
of a real trend. But if the data hold, the new study may be an early
glimpse of the impact of escalating obesity and diabetes on U.S. deaths,
said Wayne Rosamond, a University of North Carolina epidemiology
professor and expert on heart disease statistics.

"This could be a harbinger of things to come," Rosamond said.

To be sure, the overall trend is still positive: From 1980 through 2002,
the death rate from blocked heart arteries was cut in half for men and
women over 35. Improvements in treatment and preventive measures,
including cholesterol-lowering medications, get the credit.

But what's going on with younger adults is startling, said Dr. Anthony
DeMaria, editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology,
which is publishing the study and released it Monday.

"We have a pretty rosy view of how things are going in the war against
cardiovascular disease," DeMaria said. "I view this paper as a wake-up
call that says there is a very important segment of our population that
needs some attention."

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States,
killing almost 700,000 Americans each year.

Nearly 500,000 of those deaths are attributed to coronary artery
disease, in which fat and plaque clog the arteries feeding blood to the
heart, sometimes called hardening of the arteries. Heart attacks are a
common result.

It can take many years for arteries to get dangerously blocked. About 93
percent of deaths occur in people 55 and older.

But a combination of factors -- including genetics, obesity and high
cholesterol -- are sometimes fatal for younger adults. In 2002, about
25,000 men and 8,000 women ages 35 to 54 died of coronary artery disease.

The study was done by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Control and Prevention and Britain's University of
Liverpool. They looked at U.S. vital statistics for artery-related
deaths in adults ages 35 and older for the years 1980 through 2002, the
most recent year for which data were available when the analysis was done.

When they compared age groups, they detected the worrisome difference.
The study found the death rate for women ages 35 to 44 rose from 1997 to
2002, when the rate was 8.2 per 100,000 women, the highest it's been
since 1987.

In actual numbers, the increase amounts to roughly 100 added deaths a
year of women in that age group. That's a relatively small impact in the
entire U.S. population.

Still, the results are statistically significant and a legitimate cause
for concern, said Dr. Wayne Giles, director of the CDC's division of
adult and community health.

"That's like an MD-88 crashing every year," he said, referring to a
medium-size commuter jet plane.

The rates for men age 35 to 44 were relatively stable in the last few
years of the study period. The rate was 26 deaths per 100,000 men in
that age group in 2002.

The fact the male rate didn't worsen may indicate doctors are more
likely to suspect heart disease in men that age than in women, said the
CDC's Dr. Earl Ford, a study co-author.