Mammography not just for breast cancer

Mammography is the examination that all women over the 'door' are familiar. But not only serves to flush out a possible breast cancer, could also be used to identify women at increased risk of heart attack and stroke: it shows a study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, conducted in the United States in 1500 postmenopausal ladies.

Peter Schnatz, an American cardiologist in Hartford, Connecticut, who has been studying the calcification of the mammary artery as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, followed for 5 years hundreds of volunteers who, in 2004, had undergone a mammography.

After two, four and five years women have responded to questionnaires specific to cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol, menopause, physical activity) and reported in the meantime had developed cardiovascular disease, from stroke, to 'infarction, angina.

Its purpose was to determine whether mammography could be used as a tool for estimating the risk of cardiovascular disease, as it can see the small calcium deposits in breast arteries, according to many, may be indicative of an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes .

Women whose mammograms reveal the presence of calcifications were on average older than the other (69 years compared with 54 at the time of study entry) and, in fact, occur more often than other cardiovascular diseases: more than 20 percent of women mammary arteries 'dirty' has developed, over the 5 years, angina, heart attack or stroke, compared to only 5 percent of women whose mammograms had not detected accumulation of calcium.

Interesting links

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Donna Breast Cancer Detection

The "donna" is designed especially for women from 50 a possible breast cancer at an early stage and thus to ensure a less burdensome treatment and better prognosis. Because breast cancer in women under 70, the most common cancer.

In the health care of the Canton takes "donna" an important place. St.Gallen is the first canton in German-speaking Switzerland who, in the national project for the early detection of breast cancer, a quality-controlled mammography screening program. In collaboration with the Cancer League St. Gallen-Appenzell this screening was implemented at the highest level of quality.

Smaller than a cherry pit

The radiologist Dr. David Matt explained that with today's devices already tumors the size of a cherry stone and can be detected smaller. The interpretation of mammography images, however, requires experience and experience again. And as to be sure, would come two completely independent reviewers to the same result. If they are not in agreement, a third expert will attend. Moreover, additional findings were in critical ultrasound and possibly arranged tissue samples. "Fortunately, we now 9 out of 10 women studied released no findings."

Colon Cancer Increase As Age

As people age, the risk for colon cancer also increases. For most people, it is best to begin regular screenings for colon cancer at age 50 and colonoscopy is one of the recommended methods of detection. The frequency with which her ​​husband will require a colonoscopy depends on the results of the first test.

Colon cancer is common. According to the National Cancer Institute, are diagnosed each year more than 140,000 new cases of colorectal cancer in the United States and of those cases, about 93 percent are people over 50 years. In reality, age is one of the most important risk factors for colon cancer.

However, there are other risk factors. The family history of colon cancer, especially of a relative of first degree of consanguinity (parents or children) diagnosed with the disease, greatly enhances the risk. Suffering chronic inflammation of the colon for several years, as in the case of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, also increases the likelihood of developing colon cancer.

Finally, the personal history of adenomatous polyps (a specific type of polyp in the colon) also increases the likelihood of a person to develop colon cancer.

Apart from these important risk factors, others may increase the risk for colon cancer and among them are smoking, drinking moderate to heavy alcohol, obesity and sedentary lifestyle.