Saving thousands of lives: New pill breakthrough in heart battle
Published: November 5, 2005
A NEW emergency treatment for heart attacks could save thousands of lives worldwide every year.
Scientists looked at the effect of adding the anti-clotting drug clopidogrel to aspirin, which is routinely given to heart attack victims.
A study of more than 45,800 patients from 1250 hospitals in China found that adding clopidogrel reduced the relative risk of deaths, repeat heart attacks and stroke by 9%
It also led to a 7% reduction in deaths alone, compared with patients who were given a dummy drug in addition to aspirin.
The results, published today in The Lancet medical journal, come as figures reveal Glasgow’s health could be improving.
The number of heart attacks in the city fell from 1658 in 1999 to 1536 last year.
Earlier this week it was revealed fewer people in Scotland are getting heart disease, fewer are dying from it - and more Scots than ever are getting life-saving preventative surgery.
Meanwhile, new findings suggest waist-to-hip ratio is a better way of assessing heart attack risk than a person’s relative height and weight,.
To date Body Mass Index has been the standard tool for judging if someone is at risk from being overweight.
BMI is worked out by multiplying weight in kilograms by height in metres squared. A BMI of 20 to 25 is considered normal, 25 to 30 overweight, and over 30 obese.
High BMI’s are associated with a greater risk of heart attacks, but researchers today said a better system was to measure the relative size of waist and hips, which focused on abdominal fat.
Larger waist size was found to be harmful, whereas larger hip size - possibly indicating lower body muscle mass - was protective.
To measure your waist-to-hip ratio, measure the smallest part of your waist and the widest part of your hips. Divide the hip measurement into the waist.
For men the ratio should be less than 1.0, for women less than 0.9.
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