ECG may help post-menopausal women check heart disease risk

A six year study of several thousand women in a hormone replacement trial, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that it might be worth having an electrocardiogram – an ECG – to help assess the risk of heart disease.

At the start of the study, the women had no signs of heart disease. But if they had minor abnormalities on their ECG, such as extra beats or some small electrical problems, they had about a 40% per cent higher risk of developing problems like heart attacks or strokes.

If they had major ECG abnormalities, such as abnormal rhythms or more serious electrical issues, they had two and a half times the risk. Hormone replacement didn’t affect the findings.

The older a woman, the higher her blood pressure, the fatter she was, the higher her cholesterol and whether she had diabetes increased her chances of having an abnormal ECG. But the risk increase from abnormal ECGs remained after taking these factors into account.

It may be that GPs could use the ECG to identify women who are at hidden risk of heart disease and stroke.