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Pounding at Temple May Mean Doubled Heart Attack,
Stroke Risk
One of every 500 seniors may have Giant Cell
Arterities
March 21, 2005 – Senior citizens with a pounding in
their temple may be at much higher risk of a heart attack or stroke.
Older people with giant cell arteritis – a chronic inflammatory
condition of medium and large arteries – are twice as likely to have a
heart attack or stroke compared to adults without this condition, says
new University of Toronto research.
"The artery that you can feel pulsating on one side
of your temple – the temporal artery – is the classic area where giant
cell arteritis (GCA) occurs," says Dr. Joel Ray, a professor of medicine
at U of T and a clinician-scientist at St. Michael's Hospital.
"Definitive signs of inflammation are found in this tender, red, sore
area of the artery. Some people who get GCA have involvement of the
arteries that supply the brain, heart or main aorta itself, which can be
quite devastating, leading to a stroke or heart attack."
Ray and his colleagues from Toronto's Institute for
Clinical Evaluative Sciences, report their findings in the March issue
of Heart. They compared individuals with GCA to two control groups
without GCA – those with osteoarthritis and those without any arthritic
condition. When compared to the former, the risk of cardiovascular
disease among GCA patients was 1.6 times higher. Compared to the healthy
adults, however, GCA patients had more than a doubling of their risk of
cardiovascular disease.
The prevalence of GCA is estimated at one per every
500 seniors. "Nobody knows why this disorder happens," says Ray. "It's
quite spontaneous, it doesn't have an obvious genetic, ethnic or classic
risk factor description to it. Literally, it's age-related, and often,
chronic, requiring years to treat."
The researchers suggest that those who treat
seniors with GCA be made aware of their greater risk of cardiovascular
disease and that in addition to encouraging a healthy lifestyle, these
seniors be considered candidates for aggressive management of other risk
factors, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol.
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