Body & Brain
Cancer treatment raises stroke risk, plus ankle-powered sprints, irregular heartbeats and more in this week’s news
By Science News
Heart arrhythmia signals risk for women
Healthy middle-aged women who experience atrial fibrillation, the most common kind of irregular heartbeat, face a heightened risk of death. Of nearly 35,000 women over age 45, 1,011 developed atrial fibrillation during a 15-year study by a U.S.-Swiss research team. Overall, 1,602 women in the study died during that time, including 63 who had developed atrial fibrillation at some point, the researchers report in the May 25
Journal of the American Medical Association
. After accounting for cardiac risk factors and other differences among the women, the researchers calculated that those with the irregular heartbeat were 70 percent more likely to die from any cause than those without it, and even more likely to die of heart problems. —