Pubdate: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 Source: Times Union (NY) Section: Life & Leisure, Pg D2 Copyright: 2001 Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation Contact: http://www.timesunion.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/452 Author: Dallas Morning News STUDY TIES COCAINE TO HEART RISK They are seemingly healthy young men, but they show up nonetheless at emergency rooms across the country, complaining of severe chest pains. Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas say these puzzling cases can usually be explained by cocaine use, documented as a primary cause of heart attacks in otherwise healthy adults for nearly 20 years. "The risk of acute myocardial infarction is increased by a factor of 24 during the 60 minutes after the use of cocaine in persons who are otherwise at relatively low risk," says the study in a recent edition of The New England Journal of Medicine. Doctors Richard A. Lange and L. David Hillis, the authors of the study, say emergency room personnel often do not suspect cocaine use as the underlying cause of heart attacks in young patients. The distinction is important because cocaine-induced chest pains are treated differently than heart attacks from other causes, they say in their review article. With increasing cocaine use, emergency departments need to quickly recognize and treat these cases accordingly. American Heart Association guidelines specify the differences in such treatments.Another diabetes risk Women are almost three times as likely to die within four years of having suffered a heart attack if they also suffer from diabetes, warns a new study from Boston researchers in the medical journal Diabetes Care. The findings are further evidence of the devastating effect diabetes can have on a woman's cardiac system. Previous research determined diabetic women are two to four times as likely to have a heart attack than women without and they are twice as likely to die from it within 30 days. The prospective report, which followed 1,935 heart-attack patients between 1989 and 1993, found that diabetic women were 2.7 times more likely to die in the 3.7 years after the heart attack than nondiabetic women. "In light of this, diabetic patients need aggressive treatment of cardiac risk factors to prevent heart attacks," says Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal, lead author and instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.Some good vibrations Low-level vibration can improve bone density, a new study says. Scientists subjected the hind legs of adult sheep to 20 minutes of low-level mechanical vibration five days a week. After a year, spongy bone density in the sheep femurs had increased 34 percent compared with sheep that did not receive the vibration. The study, published in the current issue of the journal Nature, suggests extremely small strains, such as those caused by muscle contraction while maintaining posture, play a significant role in determining bone density. The researchers also suggest that mechanical vibration might help strengthen the bones of people suffering from osteoporosis.