outcomes of a new study raise quest...

outcomes of a new study raise questions about cardiovascular benefits of estrogen-progestin hormone therapy in women who have heart disease. According to an article in the tribe 1, 1998, Mayo Clinic Health Oasis, researchers set during a four-year randomized meditation of more than 2,700 women between ages 44 and 79 that daily use of an estrogen-progestin pill did not restore the incidence of heart attack or death.

The women whose average age was 667 had atherosclerosis (ie, hardening of the arteries), had previously experienced a heart attack, or had undergone bypass surgery or angioplasty to clear stoped or narrowed coronary arteries. The women took either a placebo or a hormone replacement pill daily.

Researchers institute that women taking the hormone replacement therapy pill had a higher risk of heart attacks and death during the first year of the research than women taking the placebo. During the final pair years of the study, however, women taking the hormone replacement therapy pill had a lower risk for heart attack and death. The springs of the study raise questions about previous studies that indicate women in succession hormone replacement therapy have fewer heart attacks and about whether the possible short-term risk of hormone replacement therapy is counterpoise by the potential long-term benefits. Researchers severityed that additional follow-up research of the women participating in the research and additional randomized trials are necessary to clarify the cardiovascular benefits of hormone replacement therapy.

"Hormone replacement therapy: inquiry questions heart benefits," Mayo Clinic Health Oasis (Sept 1 1998) Available of http:/www.mayohealth.org/mayo/9809 /htm/hormone.htm. Accessed 21 tribe 1998.

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