How important is screening for heart disease?
Tragically, coronary artery disease is the leading cause of deaths in both women and men in the US, and cardiovascular disease kills more women than all types of cancer combined, but coronary heart disease is the most treatable disease if found early. As much as 85% of heart attacks are caused by the sudden rupture of plaques that are neither large enough to impair blood flow or detectable by current screening tests (e.g. stress EKG, echo, thallium).
