Previous studies have documented an association of depression and phobic anxiety with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, but little is known about the cardiovascular sequelae of panic anxiety.To determine whether panic attacks are associated with risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in postmenopausal women.Prospective cohort survey.Ten clinical centers of the 40-center Women's Health Initiative.A total of 3369 community-dwelling, generally healthy postmenopausal women (aged 51-83 years) enrolled between 1997 and 2000 in the Myocardial Ischemia and Migraine Study who completed a questionnaire about occurrence of panic attacks in the previous 6 months.Cardiovascular/cerebrovascular outcomes (fatal and nonfatal myocardial infarction and stroke) and all-cause mortality were ascertained after a mean of 5.3 years of follow-up.A 6-month history of full-blown panic attacks, endorsed by 10% of postmenopausal women in this cohort, was associated with both coronary heart disease (hazard ratio, 4.20; 95% confidence interval, 1.76-9.99) and the combined end point of coronary heart disease or stroke (hazard ratio, 3.08; 95% confidence interval, 1.60-5.94) after controlling for multiple potential confounders. The hazard ratio for all-cause mortality, excluding those with a history of cardiovascular/cerebrovascular events, was 1.75 (95% confidence interval, 1.04-2.94).Panic attacks are relatively common among postmenopausal women and appear to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in older women.
<b>OBJECTIVE </b> <p>To assess the relationship between body fat distribution and incident lower-extremity arterial disease (LEAD). </p> <p><b>RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS </b></p> <p>We included 155,925 postmenopausal women with anthropometric measures from the Women’s Health Initiative who had no known LEAD at recruitment. A subset of 10,894 participants had body composition data quantified by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Incident cases of symptomatic LEAD were ascertained and adjudicated via medical record review.</p> <p><b>RESULTS </b></p> <p>We identified 1152 incident LEAD cases during a median 18.8 years follow-up. After multivariable adjustment and mutual adjustment, waist and hip circumference was positively and inversely associated with risk of LEAD, respectively (both P-trend values <0.0001). In a subset (n = 22,561) where various cardiometabolic biomarkers were quantified, a similar positive association of waist circumference with risk of LEAD was eliminated after adjustment for diabetes and HOMA-IR (P-trend = 0.89), whereas hip circumference remained inversely associated with the risk after adjustment for major cardiometabolic traits (P-trend = 0.0031). In the DXA subset, higher trunk fat (P-trend = 0.0081) and higher leg fat (P-trend <0.0001) was associated with higher and lower risk of LEAD, respectively. Further adjustment for diabetes, dyslipidemia, and blood pressure diminished the association for trunk fat (P-trend = 0.49), yet the inverse association for leg fat persisted (P-trend = 0.0082).</p> <p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b></p> <p>Among US postmenopausal women, a positive association of upper-body fat with risk of LEAD appeared to be attributable to traditional risk factors especially insulin resistance. Lower-body fat was inversely associated with risk of LEAD beyond known risk factors. </p>
Diuretic-based therapy is at least as effective as newer classes of agents for hypertension. However, many patients with hypertension require treatment with more than 1 drug class to achieve blood pressure control. The relative benefits or risks of 2-drug-class combinations are not well known.To prospectively evaluate if there are differences in cardiovascular mortality among postmenopausal women with hypertension but no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) treated with different classes of antihypertensive agents, singly or in combination.Women with hypertension enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, a longitudinal multicenter cohort study of 93 676 women aged 50 to 79 years at baseline (1994-1998), assessed for a mean of 5.9 years.Relationship between baseline use of ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, or diuretics, or a combination of these, and incidence of coronary heart disease, stroke, and CVD mortality.Among 30,219 women with hypertension but no history of CVD, 19,889 were receiving pharmacological antihypertensive treatment, of whom 11,294 (57%) [corrected] were receiving monotherapy with an ACE inhibitor, beta-blocker, calcium channel blocker, or diuretic, and 4493 (23%) were treated at baseline with a combination of diuretic plus either ACE inhibitor, beta-blocker, or calcium channel blocker or ACE inhibitor plus calcium channel blocker. Monotherapy with calcium channel blockers vs diuretics was associated with greater risk of CVD death (hazard ratio, 1.55; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-2.35), controlling for multiple covariates. Women treated with a diuretic plus a calcium channel blocker had an 85% greater risk of CVD death vs those treated with a diuretic plus a beta-blocker, after adjustment for age, race, smoking, high cholesterol levels requiring medication, body mass index, physical activity, use of hormone therapy, and diabetes. After exclusion of women with diabetes the hazard ratio was 2.16 (95% confidence interval, 1.16-4.03). Analyses adjusting for propensity to be receiving a particular treatment did not change the results. For morbid events of coronary heart disease or stroke, diuretics plus ACE inhibitors or calcium channel blockers did not differ from diuretics plus beta-blockers.Among women with hypertension but no history of CVD, a 2-drug-class regimen of calcium channel blockers plus diuretics was associated with a higher risk of CVD mortality vs beta-blockers plus diuretics. Risks were similar for ACE inhibitors plus diuretics and beta-blockers plus diuretics. Monotherapy with diuretics was equal or superior to other monotherapy in preventing CVD complications of high blood pressure.
Background Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among older postmenopausal women. The impact of postmenopausal breast cancer on CVD for older women is uncertain. We hypothesized that older postmenopausal women with breast cancer would be at a higher risk of CVD than similar aged women without breast cancer and that CVD would be a major contributor to the subsequent morbidity and mortality. Methods In a prospective Women's Health Initiative study, incident CVD events and total and cause-specific death rates were compared between postmenopausal women with (n = 4,340) and without (n = 97,576) incident invasive breast cancer over 10 years post-diagnosis, stratified by 3 age groups (50–59, 60–69, and 70–79). Results Postmenopausal women, regardless of breast cancer diagnosis, had similar and high levels of CVD risk factors (e.g., smoking and hypertension) at baseline prior to breast cancer, which were strong predictors of CVD and total mortality over time. CVD affected mostly women age 70–79 with localized breast cancer (79% of breast cancer cases in 70–79 age group): only 17% died from breast cancer and CVD was the leading cause of death (22%) over the average 10 years follow up. Compared to age-matched women without breast cancer, women age 70–79 at diagnosis of localized breast cancer had a similar multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.01 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.76–1.33) for coronary heart disease, a lower risk of composite CVD (HR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.70–1.00), and a higher risk of total mortality (HR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.04–1.39). Conclusion CVD was a major contributor to mortality in women with localized breast cancer at age 70–79. Further studies are needed to evaluate both screening and treatment of localized breast cancer tailored to the specific health issues of older women.
