2007年VOA标准英语-Scientific Study Takes Closer Look at Women's R

By Melinda Smith
Washington, DC
14 February 2007
 
watch Heart Disease in Women

Figures from the World Health Organization show that 17 million people die of cardiovascular disease each year.  Symptoms for heart disease in men and women often vary.  But typically doctors diagnose heart problems in women based on risk factors seen in men.  Now a decade-long study of 25,000 American women shows some underlying¹ risks that may provide deeper clues to heart disease in many women. 

 
Leslie Power
Forty-five-year-old Leslie Power was out shoveling snow two years ago when she got the first warning of a pending² heart attack. "I couldn't breathe.  I was having pain in my shoulder."

Leslie Power had not thought she was at risk for heart disease.  Typically women experience warning signs for at least a month before an attack.  Doctors can often make a wrong diagnosis³ because symptoms can match those of another illness.  General symptoms of a heart attack include chest pain that lasts for a few minutes then returns.  Pain felt in other parts of the upper body.  Nausea⁴ or vomiting⁵, dizziness, or rapid heart beats. 

 
For women, those symptoms can include unusual fatigue⁶, trouble sleeping, shortness of breath, indigestion or anxiety.  Or sometimes women heart attack victims may have no symptoms at all.

Dr. Paul Ridker is part of a researcher team at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts: "We currently tend to underestimate women's risk for heart disease.  We found in the new data that many women were at much higher risk than we anticipated."

Dr. Ridker and his colleagues collected blood samples from almost 25,000 women who were 45 years and older.  They looked at factors that could lead to heart attack or stroke years later. Their findings appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"We created a new risk score, something called the Reynolds Risk Score.  And it turned out this does a much better job predicting accurately⁷ a woman's true risk of having a heart attack or stroke over the next ten years of her life."

The 'score' measures the usual factors such as smoking tobacco, diabetes⁸, high blood pressure and high cholesterol⁹, and of course, age.  Also taken into consideration: whether your parents and other relatives suffered heart attacks.  Now the Reynolds Risk assessment¹⁰ includes a measurement of the C-reactive protein in your blood.  C-R-P, as it is called, indicates possible inflammation of the arteries¹¹. 

Again, Dr. Paul Ridker. "What's very important to understand is that you can be a high-risk patient if your C-R-P is elevated, even if your cholesterol levels are low."

Health experts say millions of women -- and men -- may be at risk for heart disease.  For those who have access to a computer, Dr. Ridker believes that reading about the Reynolds Risk Score might just give you the tools you and your doctor need to make an intelligent diagnosis:

"We can reclassify nearly 50 percent of all those women into higher or lower risk," says the doctor.

While using the scoring system may help forecast future risk of heart disease, the researchers say as many as one fourth of heart attacks and strokes still occur among people who show no warning signs. 

Nevertheless, Leslie Power says she wants others to benefit from she has already learned. "I think what women need to understand is that they are at risk for heart disease." Power is reducing her risk of further heart problems by exercising more and quitting smoking.

Video provided by the Journal of the American Medical Association

1 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

2 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

3 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

4 nausea   

n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶)

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕期常有恶心的现象。
• He experienced nausea after eating octopus.吃了章鱼后他感到恶心。

5 vomiting   

吐

参考例句：

• Symptoms include diarrhoea and vomiting. 症状有腹泻和呕吐。
• Especially when I feel seasick, I can't stand watching someone else vomiting." 尤其晕船的时候，看不得人家呕。”

6 fatigue   

n.疲劳，劳累

参考例句：

• The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
• I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。

7 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

8 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

9 cholesterol   

n.（U）胆固醇

参考例句：

• There is cholesterol in the cell of body.人体细胞里有胆固醇。
• They are determining the serum-protein and cholesterol levels.他们正在测定血清蛋白和胆固醇的浓度。

10 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

11 arteries   

n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道

参考例句：

• Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This is the place where the three main arteries of West London traffic met. 这就是伦敦西部三条主要交通干线的交汇处。 来自《简明英汉词典》