Heart attacks rise among Italian women

BRINDISI, Italy, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- The heart attack rate among young women rose in Italy by almost 30 percent from 2001 and 2005, researchers say.

Dr. Antonio Giordano, president and founder of the Sbarro Health Research Organization for Biotechnology, says the overall number of acute myocardial infarctions exceeded 118,000 -- 75,000 in men and 43,000 in women -- in 2005 compared to 96,000 in 2001.

"The study suggests that more information on measures to reduce risk factors for heart failure should be directed towards young women," Giordano says in a statement.

"The increase was 17.2 percent in men and 29.2 percent in women," lead author Dr. Prisco Piscitelli of the Euro Mediterranean Biomedical and Scientific Institute in Brindisi, Italy, says in a statement. "The greatest number of hospitalizations for heart failure was recorded in men ages 45-64 -- 29,900 cases in 2005 -- and in women older than 75 years of age with 26,500 cases. In the later age group women overtook men, who had 24,000 admissions in 2005."

The increase in hospitalizations for heart failure from 2001 to 2005 was higher for women in all age groups, but it peaked at 36 percent in women age 75 and older. Women ages 45-64 had an increase of hospitalizations of 22 percent -- compared to an increase of 9 percent for men in the same age group.

The findings are published in Aging Clinical Experimental Research.