Inside This Issue Does Your Fitness Club Have a Defibrillator? Fast Facts on Preventing Strokes New Way to Look at Blood Pressure Don't Ignore Signs of a Heart Attack Fish Oil for Heart Health Flu Shots May Help Hearts, Too Women and Heart Disease Heart Disease Prevention Survey Planning a Kickoff Prescriptions for Defibrillators Not Required in England
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In a recent issue of Medical Update, we reported on new research linking flu shots to a reduced risk of stroke. Now, investigators say that the wintertime vaccine may also help heart patients cut their risk of dying from cardiovascular causes as well. Dr. Branco Mautner and colleagues in Buenos Aires, Argentina, studied 200 patients who had suffered a heart attack within the previous 72 hours and 101 patients who had an artery-opening procedure called angioplasty during which small tubes were inserted to prop open the blood vessels. Half of the patients were given a flu shot in addition to standard treatment. After six months, two percent of the vaccinated patients died from cardiovascular causes versus eight percent of those who did not receive a flu shot. Among the vaccinated patients, 11 percent suffered another heart attack, died, or were hospitalized for poor blood flow to the heart, compared to 23 percent of nonvaccinated patients. Findings were released in an April 15th rapid-access publication of Circulation. If you are a heart attack survivor or have had angioplasty for clogged blood vessels, we invite you to complete the survey below. In a future issue of this newsletter, we will report the combined results from this questionnaire and the Stroke Prevention Survey, published on page 5 of Medical Update Volume XXVII, Number 8.