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Stress 'lethal for heart disease sufferers'

Mental stress can be lethal for people with a history of heart disease according to a new study.

Scientists found that the risk of dying was tripled for vulnerable patients with a heart problem triggered by mental stress. .

Stress constricts blood vessels and at the same time raises blood pressure and heart beat rate, increasing the heart's demand for oxygen. .

The result is that the heart muscle may not get enough blood - a condition known as ischaemia. .

The US researchers used an imaging method in which red blood cells are labelled with dye to look for wall motion pumping abnormalities in the heart which are a clear sign that ischaemia is occurring. .

A total of 196 patients were included in the study, all of whom had 50% narrowing of at least one major artery or a previous heart attack. The patients were given a psychological stress test in which they were asked to talk for five minutes on an assigned topic. Abnormalities in the heart's pumping ability were detected in 20% of the patients during the test. These patients were found to have a 2.8 times higher death rate than those without the abnormalities over the following five years. .

All 17 deaths recorded were men, although most of the patients in whom stress-related wall motion abnormalities were detected were female. .

Dr David Sheps, from the University of Florida Health Sciences Centre in Gainesville, said: "This adds to a growing body of evidence that links mental stress and bad outcomes in individuals with coronary artery disease." .

The findings were published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. .
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Story filed: 21:05 Monday 25th March 2002 ANANOVA