NEW TECHNIQUE REVEALS FAR MORE SILENT HEART ATTACKS

Scientists had found a new way to detect if silent heart attacks have occurred. This new discovery is great news for the heart attack victims. It is reported that every year about 1,460,000 Americans suffer from heart attacks, and it is believed that more than 195,000 of those attacks go unnoticed. Silent heart attacks often go unnoticed due to their subtle symptoms. Even though the effects of the silent heart attack may not cause death at that specific time, they can lead to heart attacks several years later. Scientists at Duke and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago have discovered that by using a delayed enhancement cardiovascular resonance, or DE-CMR, which is often used to evaluate the damage after a known heart attack, can assess the damage that other generally used medical devices cannot.

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=new-technique-reveals-far-more-sile-2009-04-17