ORLANDO, Fla. -- Heart attacks have become less severe in the United States over the past decade, improving victims' chances of escaping death or a life of chronic chest pain.
New research being presented today shows that while the number of heart attacks has remained relatively stable, they are less likely to do serious damage. Experts credit a combination of healthier living habits, better heart medicines and more intense treatment immediately after heart attacks.Researchers said that while they documented the change during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the same trend probably helps explain the steady drop in heart attack deaths nationwide since the 1960s.
"It's really good news that the severity of heart attacks is declining," said Dr. David Goff Jr. of Wake Forest University. "Less damage is being done, so people will be less likely to become cardiac cripples, unable to live normally because of severe chest pain."
Goff presented one of several studies on heart disease trends at an epidemiology conference in Orlando sponsored by the American Heart Association.
Experts said heart attacks are still the nation's biggest killer and cautioned against complacency.
"This is very good and encouraging news," said Dr. Melissa Austin of the University of Washington. "But we have got to be vigilant. We can't assume everything will continue to get better."
Nevertheless, the taming of heart disease has been one of the major success stories of modern medicine. In 1996, 477,000 Americans died of coronary heart disease. According to government statistics, there would have been 1.1 million deaths by then if the rate had stayed at its 1960s high.
To help understand the change in heart attack severity, Goff studied 4,900 heart attack victims over an eight-year period in Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and Mississippi.
One measurement of a heart attack's severity is the level of creatine kinase, an enzyme released by damaged heart tissue. Goff found that average peak blood levels of this enzyme fell 5 percent per year during the study period. In 1987, levels were at least twice the normal reading in 80 percent of the patients. By 1994, this had fallen to 63 percent.
Goff also found that in 1987, doctors judged three-quarters of the heart attacks to be definite, while the rest were probable. By 1994, the definite heart attacks had fallen to two-thirds.