The risk of having a heart attack while pregnant, giving birth, or during the two months after delivery, continues to increase for American women, a study finds.
The risk of having a heart attack while pregnant, giving birth, or during the two months after delivery, continues to increase for American women, a study finds.
As published online July 18 in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, the study, led by NYU School of Medicine researchers, found that the risk of suffering a heart attack among pregnant women rose 25 percent from 2002 to 2014.
The researchers suggest that the trend among many women to have children later in life is one possible reason for the increase, as heart attack risk rises with age overall, and especially during pregnancy. More women, they say, are also obese and/or have diabetes, key risk factors for heart attack.
Another factor that may explain the rising numbers is that myocardial infarctions, the technical name for heart attacks, are easier to detect than a decade ago, as tests for early protein markers of related heart cell damage have improved and become more widely available.
Read more at NYU Langone Health/NYU School of Medicine
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