Inflammation may be a silent heart disease risk in healthy women, new study suggests

A silent heart disease risk factor may explain why some women end up having heart attacks and strokes despite seeming like they are healthy, a new study suggests

A silent heart disease risk factor may explain why some women end up having heart attacks and strokes despite seeming like they are healthy, a new study suggests.

The analysis of 30 years of data from more than 12,000 women revealed that inflammation was comparable to high LDL cholesterol as a heart disease risk factor, researchers reported Friday at the European Society of Cardiology Congress meeting in Madrid. The results were simultaneously published in the European Heart Journal.

Measuring inflammation is not a standard part of screening in the United States and there are no outward signs that a person may have high levels.

Inflammation can raise a woman’s risk of a heart attack or stroke even when other risk factors — such as high cholesterol, smoking status and high blood pressure — aren’t an issue, said the study’s lead author, Dr. Paul Ridker, a preventive cardiologist at Mass General Brigham and Women’s Heart and Vascular Institute and a professor of medicine at the Harvard University Medical School.

“Half of all heart attacks and strokes occur in people who do not have any major risk factors,” Ridker said.