Heart Diseases topic is a diverse issue that touches our everyday lives in different prospectives. Many are diagnosed with them, while others are classified as high or low risk patients. Before 1900, very few people died of heart disease. Since then, heart disease has become the number one killer in the United States. (Heart History).
I will briefly describe two recent research articles concerning heart diseases; one about the significance of metabolic syndrome in diagnosing cardiovascular diseases and mortality rate in elderly by Leon A Simons, Judith Simons, Yechiel Friedlander and John McCallum, the other article written by William B. White handles the smoke related morbidity in cardiovascular setting. In the first article, Simons L. A et Al investigated in a cohort longitudinal study was done on 1233 men and 1572 women who were born after 1930 followed for 16 years the Mets levels and cardiovascular diseases.
“The most recent definition of MetS from the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (AHA/NHLBI) in 2005 proposes a clinical diagnosis based on the presence of at least three of the following five features: elevated waist circumference, elevated plasma triglyceride level, reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level, elevated blood pressure, and elevated fasting plasma glucose level. ” (Simon, A. L. , 2007).
In this research BMI (Body Mass Index) was taken instead of elevated waist circumference- a major drawback, and any three of the above presence classified the patient as a high risk patient on the basis of this criteria “BMI ? 29. 3 kg/m2; fasting plasma triglyceride level ? 1. 7 mmol/L; HDL-C level < 1. 03 mmol/L in men and < 1. 30 mmol/L in women; blood pressure ? 130 mmHg systolic or 85 mmHg diastolic, or on antihypertensive treatment; fasting plasma glucose level ? 5. 6 mmol/L or on hypoglycaemic treatment or with history of diabetes. ” (Simon, A. L. , 2007).
Another drawback in the data collected was that individuals with lipid controlling drugs where not considered nor did their condition be highlighted. The results stated that MetS was present in 31% of men and 34% of women other significant predictors of mortality included smoking, age and hypertension. This shows the importance of MetS as a method of diagnosis cardiovascular heart problems which can greatly aid in nowadays investigations. In the second article White emphasizes the relation of the intensity of smoking and the present cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction and congestive heart diseases.
In a study previously done by Carnethon and associates contrasting “blood pressure, total cholesterol levels, body mass index, physician diagnosed diabetes, and cigarette smoking in approximately 37,000 black and white adults in the Chicago Heart Association Detection Project in Industry study” (White B. W. , 2007) between the 1960’s and 70’s it revealed that smoking is the compelling risk factor in developing heart problems. As the World Health Organization (WHO) also indicated that “hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, elevated body mass index, low intake of fruits and vegetables, and smoking contribute to 13. 5%, 12. 9%, 10%, 6%, and 23.
6% of deaths in developing nations, respectively. ” (White B. W. , 2007). Also found that second hand smoking has a direct correlation with developing heart problems mainly myocardial infarction. The direct proportionality increases with the increased number of hour exposure per week. Cigarette smoking was indicative in both articles as a poor life quality choice increasing the chances for death. It remains a high risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity whether the smoking was direct or second handed and should be always be avoided when possible with cigarette cessation programs as an aid in this important mortality limiting step.
References
Heart History. (n. d. ) retrieved 20 April 2007 From http://sln. fi. edu/biosci/history/history. html Simons; L. A, Simons J. , Friedlander Y. & McCallum J. (2007) Does a diagnosis of the metabolic syndrome provide additional prediction of cardiovascular disease and total mortality in the elderly? The Dubbo Study, MJA 186 (8): 400-403 White B. W. (2007), Smoking-related morbidity and mortality in the cardiovascular setting. Prev Cardiol. 10(2):1-4