Just over one in
12 U.S. service members who died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars had plaque
buildup in the arteries around their hearts - an early sign of heart disease,
according to a new study.
None of them had
been diagnosed with heart disease before deployment, researchers
said.
"This is a
young, healthy, fit group," said the study's lead author, Dr. Bryant Webber,
from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda,
Maryland.
"These are
people who are asymptomatic, they feel fine, they're deployed into combat," he
told Reuters Health.
"It just proves
again the point that we know that this is a clinically silent disease, meaning
people can go years without being diagnosed, having no signs or symptoms of the
disease."
Webber said the
findings also show that although the U.S. has made progress in lowering the
nationwide prevalence of heart disease, there's more work that can be done to
encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle and reduce their
risks.
Heart disease
accounts for about one in four deaths - or about 600,000 Americans each year,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
The new data
come from autopsies done on U.S. service members who died in October 2001
through August 2011 during combat or from unintentional injuries. Those
autopsies were originally performed to provide a full account to service
members' families of how they died.
The study
mirrors autopsy research on Korean and Vietnam war veterans, which found signs
of heart disease in as many as three-quarters of deceased service members at the
time. Reuters
AHT/ARA
- Latest News
- Top Hits