ESC Congress 2003: Mayo Clinic Study: Overweight patients twice as likely to have second heart attackSeptember 01, 2003IMPORTANT: This press release accompanies a poster or oral session given at the ESC Congress 2003. Written by the investigator himself/herself, this press release does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Society of Cardiology Heart attack patients who are overweight or obese are about twice as likely as normal weight patients to have a second heart attack and die of heart-related causes, according to findings of a Mayo Clinic study presented at the European Society of Cardiology meeting September 1 in Vienna, Austria. The study reviewed 941 consecutive patients admitted to the coronary care unit at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester, Minn. USA between January 1988 and December 2001. Obese heart attack patients were, on average, six years younger than their normal-weight counterparts at the time of their first heart attacks. The long-term survival was similar in normal (Body Mass Index or BMI<25), overweight (25 R. Scott Wright, M.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and one of the study's authors, says these most recent findings help put the cardiac risks of excess weight in perspective. "Our previous study had shown that while overweight and obese patients typically had their first heart attacks at younger ages, their short-term outcomes were somewhat better than normal weight patients," he explains. "In longer term follow-up, we now see that this advantage of relative youthfulness does not last, and that within a year the mortality rates in the overweight groups have 'caught up' with the normal-weight patients." Joseph G. Murphy M.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and study co-author, stresses the enormous public health and economic implications for the United States health care system if these pilot findings are confirmed by larger studies. He says a concerted worldwide effort by the medical community is needed to reverse the obesity epidemic. R. Scott Wright, M.D. and Joseph G. Murphy, M.D. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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