Doctors who want to identify women at risk of heart disease should test her fitness, say researchers. Scientists from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found treadmill tests could help to identify vulnerable women.
They proved to be more reliable than more sophisticated electrical analysis of the heart.

Nearly 3,000 women took part in the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers focused on two measurements of fitness: how long a woman could exercise on a treadmill, and how long it took her heart to return to normal once she had stopped.
Women who performed below average on both measures were 3.5 times more likely to die of heart disease than women who were above average.

However, among women who had been thought to be a low risk, those who scored below average were nearly 13 times more likely to die of heart disease than those who performed better on the tests.

The worse the performance in the exercise tests, the greater the risk proved to be. In contrast, electrical measurement of decreased blood flow - used to diagnose hidden heart disease in men - did not accurately identify women with hidden heart disease.

The researchers stress that their study provides further evidence that regular exercise is an effective way to reduce the risk of heart disease.

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