Black Women At Higher Risk Of Birth-Related Heart Problem
By Mary Parker
Black women are much more likely than whites to develop a potentially deadly weakening of the heart muscle around the time they give birth, a new study suggests.
Symptoms of peripartum cardiomyopathy, which typically occurs in the last month of pregnancy or the first few months after delivery, include shortness of breath, particularly when lying down. The death rate is between 15 percent and 56 percent.
“When it hits, it’s totally unexpected because these are young, otherwise healthy women with young children. [They aren't patients] you’d expect to have any sort of health problem, much less heart failure,” study corresponding author Dr. Mindy B. Gentry, a cardiologist at the Medical College of Georgia, said in a news release from the school.
In this study, Gentry and colleagues looked at cases of peripartum cardiomyopathy among women who gave birth at an MCG teaching hospital between July 2003 and July 2008. While 55 percent of the women who gave birth were white, 93 percent of the 28 women who developed peripartum cardiomyopathy were black. Of those 28 women, one died and another required a heart transplant.
Being black was the most important predictor of peripartum cardiomyopathy. Other risk factors include high blood pressure, being unmarried, smoking during pregnancy and having more than two previous pregnancies, Gentry said.
The study was published in the current issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Gentry and colleagues said further research is needed to identify genetic and/or environmental factors associated with African descent that may explain the increased risk of peripartum cardiomyopathy in black women.
The Cardiovascular Research Foundation has more about pregnancy and heart failure.
| Black Breast Cancer Survivors Face Higher Heart Failure Risk |
|
|
| Black breast cancer survivors seem more likely to develop heart failure than other women, a new study says. |
|
|
| Racial Gap Persists In Women’s Heart Health Knowledge |
|
|
| A new survey suggests that while public health campaigns have prompted a growing number of American women to recognize that heart disease is the biggest risk to their well-being, a racial gap in awareness remains as wide as ever. |
|
|
| Weight-Lifting May Boost Heart Health In Black Men |
|
|
| A little weight training may go a long way toward helping improve the heart health of black men, new research suggests. |
|
|
| Go Red For Women – American Heart Association – Powerful Stories From 6 Courageous Women |
|
|
| Born with a congenital heart defect, Pam was told that she would never be able to have children because of the stress it would put on her heart. Yet at age 30, Pam was cleared by her doctors to carry children. Despite a difficult pregnancy, culminating in an emergency c-section and heart surgery, Pam and her son are happy and healthy today. Watch this video to hear more of Pam’s story. |
|
|
| Running May Be Harmful To Your Heart |
|
|
| Running, long considered a healthy hobby, may actually be dangerous for some. At least that’s the prevailing opinion of a number of the country’s top cardiologists and a new study due out next month from British journal Heart. |
|
|
| Heart Risks Still Higher In Blacks Than Whites |
|
|
| Black men and women are more likely to die of a heart attack or heart failure than whites in the United States, according to a new study. |
|
|
| Chelation Treatment Shows Promise To Treat Heart Disease |
|
|
| A treatment used for heart disease, which many doctors consider to be fringe medicine, has unexpectedly showed promise in a new study, sparking debate about the findings. The study tested chelation, infusions that may help remove calcium from hardened arteries around the heart. While chelation has long been used to treat lead poisoning, its safety for heart disease remains unproven. |
|
|
| African-Americans And Heart Disease, Stroke |
|
|
| Heart disease is the No. 1 killer for all Americans, and stroke is the fourth-leading cause of death. As frightening as those statistics are the risks of getting those diseases are even higher for African-Americans. |
|
|
| Fewer Blacks, Hispanics Get New Heart Device |
|
|
| Blacks and Hispanics with chronic heart failure are less likely than whites to be treated with a specialized pacemaker that prolongs survival and eases symptoms, U.S. researchers said Tuesday. |
|
|
| 9 In 10 Blacks With High Blood Pressure Have Early Heart Disease |
|
|
| High blood pressure is strongly associated with heart disease in black Americans, new research shows. |
|
|
| Minorities Now Surpass Whites In US Births, Census Shows |
|
|
| America hit a demographic milestone last year, with new census figures showing for the first time more than half the children born in the U.S. were minorities. |
|
|
| Women Of Color Have More Risk Factors For Heart Disease |
|
|
| African American women are nearly 40 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than white women, according to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics published by the American Heart Association….. |
|
|
| Facts About Peripheral Arterial Disease (P.A.D.) For African Americans |
|
|
| P.A.D. is more common in African Americans than any other racial or ethnic group. This may be in part because some of the conditions that raise the risk for developing P.A.D., such as diabetes and high blood pressure, are more common among African Americans. |
|
|
| Heart Disease In Women And The Symptoms |
|
|
| Heart disease in women is the number one killer of American women. Are you surprised? Most women are. Heart disease symptoms in women are far less understood than in men. But that’s not all the bad news. |
|
|
| Gene Variant Linked To Sudden Cardiac Death Risk In Blacks |
|
|
| A common gene variant among black people may be linked to the development of life-threatening heart arrhythmias (when the heart beats too fast, too slow or irregularly), according to a new study. |
|
|
| Altered Gene Protects Some African-Americans From Heart Disease |
|
|
| A study by scientists at Johns Hopkins discovered that a single alteration in the genetic code in about a fourth of African-Americans helps protect them from coronary artery disease, the leading cause of death in Americans of all races. |
|
|
| Cardiovascular Disease In African Americans |
|
|
| Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death of African Americans in the United States. Four out of 10 African American adults have some form of cardiovascular disease. |
|
|
