| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(Stroke. 2008;39:2936.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.
Original Contributions |
From Public Health, Department of Social and Environmental Medicine (S.I., H.I.), Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan; Department of Public Health/Health Information Dynamics (H.T., T.K.), Fields of Science, Program of Health and Community Medicine, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan; Department of Food Science and Nutrition (C.D.), Faculty of Human Life and Environment, Nara Womens University, Nara, Japan; Infectious Disease Surveillance Cancer (A.Y.), Infectious Disease Research Division, Hyogo Prefectural Institute of Public Health and Environmental Sciences, Hyogo, Japan; Department of Public Health (S.K., A.T.), Aichi Medical University School of Medicine, Aichi, Japan; Department of Epidemiology for Community Health and Medicine (Y.W.), Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine Graduate School of Medical Sciences; Department of Health and Environmental Sciences (A.K.), Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan; Department of Medical Informatics and Occupational Epidemiology (Y.W.), Japan Labour Health and Welfare Organization, Kansai Rosai Hospital, Hyogo, Japan; Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health (Y.I.), Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Correspondence to Hiroyasu Iso, MD, PhD, Public Health, Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Osaka University, Graduate School of Medicine, Suita-shi, Osaka 565-0871 Japan. E-mail iso{at}pbhel.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
| Abstract |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Methods— Between 1988 and 1990, 34 776 men and 48 906 women aged 40 to 79 years completed a self-administered questionnaire including information about alcohol consumption. They were followed-up for a median duration of 14.2 years.
Results— Of the 83 682 respondents, 1628 died from stroke and 736 died from coronary heart disease. For men, heavy drinking (
46.0 g ethanol/day) was associated with increased mortality from total, hemorrhagic, and ischemic strokes, whereas light-to-moderate drinking was associated with reduced mortality from total cardiovascular disease, compared with not drinking. The respective multivariable hazard ratios (95% CI) were 1.48 (1.22 to 1.80) for total stoke, 1.67 (1.17 to 2.38) for hemorrhagic stroke, 1.35 (1.04 to 1.75) for ischemic stroke, and 0.88 (0.78 to 1.00) for total cardiovascular disease. Women who were heavy drinkers (
46.0 g ethanol/day) showed increased mortality from coronary heart disease, and there was reduced mortality from total cardiovascular disease for drinkers of 0.1 to 22.9 g ethanol per day compared with mortality for nondrinkers. The respective multivariable hazard ratios (95% CI) for the 2 categories of drinkers were 4.10 (1.63 to 10.3) and 0.75 (0.62 to 0.91).
Conclusions— Heavy alcohol consumption is associated with increased mortality from total stroke, particularly hemorrhagic stroke, and total cardiovascular disease for men, and from coronary heart disease for women, whereas light-to-moderate drinking may be associated with reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease for both sexes.
Key Words: alcohol consumption coronary heart disease mortality stroke
| Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
A few studies have reported the association between moderate-to-heavy alcohol consumption and increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke,5,18 and light-to-moderate alcohol consumption was associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease for women.18–20 A cohort study for a US prepaid health care program found that women consuming
6 drinks per day showed a nonsignificant excess risk for hemorrhagic stroke.5 The Nurses Health Study showed that light-to-moderate alcohol consumption was associated with reduced incidence of ischemic stroke and coronary heart disease18 and reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease,19 compared with incidence of ischemic stroke and coronary heart disease in those who do not drink. A Swedish cohort study20 also reported that light alcohol consumption among women was associated with reduced incidence of and morality from ischemic stroke. However, no such evidence is available for women in Asian countries, probably because of the low prevalence of drinkers and coronary heart disease. To examine the sex-specific associations of alcohol consumption with mortality from total stroke, stroke subtypes, and coronary heart disease, we analyzed data from a large prospective study of
83 000 Japanese men and women.
| Materials and Methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Mortality Surveillance
For mortality surveillance in each of the communities, investigators conducted a systematic review of death certificates, all of which were forwarded to the public health center in the area of residency. Mortality data were then centralized at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the underlying causes of death were coded for the National Vital Statistics from 1988 to 1994 according to the International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision (ICD-9), and from 1995 to 2003 according to the 10th revision (ICD-10). Therefore, all deaths that occurred in the cohort were ascertained by death certificates from a public health center, except for subjects who died after they had moved from their original community, in which case the subjects were treated as censored cases. Cause-specific mortality was determined separately in terms of total cardiovascular disease (ICD-9 codes 390 to 459, ICD-10 codes I01 to I99), total coronary heart disease (codes 410 to 414 and I20 to I25), and total stroke (430 to 438 and I60 to I69). The latter category was further subdivided into intraparenchymal hemorrhage (431 and I61), subarachnoid hemorrhage (430 and I60), and ischemic stroke (433 to 434 and I63 and I693). The follow-up is believed to be complete by systematic examination of death certificates and residency status. By December 31, 2003, 12 100 subjects were treated as censored when they died, and 3532 subjects were treated as censored when they moved out of the study area. The median follow-up period for the participants was 14.2 years. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Nagoya University School of Medicine.
Baseline Survey
The baseline data were collected with a self-administered questionnaire including information about alcohol consumption, demographic characteristics, histories of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and other chronic diseases, and habits related to smoking, diet, and exercise. Alcohol drinking status was established by asking the subjects whether they were nondrinkers, ex-drinkers, or current drinkers. Ex-drinkers and current drinkers were also asked about the age at which they started drinking, frequency of alcohol intake per week during the previous year (less than once/week, 1 to 2 times/week, 3 to 4 times/week, and almost every day), type of beverage (sake [rice wine], shochu [a type of brandy], beer, whiskey, or wine), and the amount consumed per occasion. The unit of amount consumed per occasion was "gou", which is the equivalent of
23 g of alcohol. The amount of ethanol per day was calculated as follows: the unit of amount consumed per occasion multiplied by the frequency of alcohol consumption per week divided by 7. The validity of the alcohol questionnaire was examined by serum
-glutamyl transferase among the subsample participants who underwent the baseline health check-ups (4969 men and 9732 women). The age-adjusted mean values of serum
-glutamyl transferase according to the alcohol consumption categories (nondrinkers, ex-drinkers, current drinkers of 1 to 22.9 g/day, 23.0 to 45.9 g/day, 46.0 to 68.9 g/day, and
69.0 g/day for men, and nondrinkers, ex-drinkers, current drinkers of 1 to 22.9 g/day, 23.0 to 45.9 g/day, and
46.0 g/day for women) were 20, 26, 27, 37, 51, and 68 IU/L, respectively, for men and 15, 18, 17, 25, and 48 IU/L, respectively, for women. The reproducibility and validity for dietary intakes of fish, vegetables, and fruit were reported elsewhere.22
Statistical Analysis
Statistical analyses were based on sex-specific rates for mortality from stroke during the follow-up periods from 1988 and from 1990 to 2003. The follow-up person-years were calculated from the date of completing the baseline questionnaire to death, moving out of the community, or the end of 2003, whichever was first. We classified alcohol consumption into 6 categories for men (nondrinkers, ex-drinkers, current drinkers of 1 to 22.9 g/day, 23.0 to 45.9 g/day, 46.0 to 68.9 g/day, and
69.0 g/day) and into 5 categories for women (nondrinkers, ex-drinkers, current drinkers of 1 to 22.9 g/day, 23.0 to 45.9 g/day, and
46.0 g/day). Sex-specific age-adjusted mean values and prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors were calculated. We conducted tests for linear trends of covariates by using the median values of alcohol consumption categories. The sex-specific hazard ratios with 95% CI for mortality from stroke and coronary heart disease were then calculated with reference to the risk for nondrinkers. These estimates were adjusted for age and other potential confounding factors by using the Cox proportional hazards model. Potential confounding factors for the adjustment were baseline of age, smoking status (never, ex-smoker, current smokers of 1 to 19, and
20 cigarettes/day), BMI (sex-specific quintiles), history of hypertension, history of diabetes, frequency of exercise (<1, 1 to 2, 3 to 4, and
5 hours/week), perceived mental stress (low, moderate, high), education level (primary school, junior high school, high school, college or higher), vegetable intake (sex-specific quintiles), and fish and fruits intake (almost never, 1 to 2 times/month, 1 to 2 times/week, 3 to 4 times/week, and almost every day). SAS (version 8.02) was used for all statistical analyses.
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
69.0 g ethanol per day. Heavy drinking of
69.0 g ethanol per day was also associated with increased risk of mortality from total stroke and total cardiovascular disease among men. Male ex-drinkers showed higher risks of mortality from total stroke, particularly hemorrhagic stroke, either intraparenchymal or subarachnoid hemorrhage, and total cardiovascular disease. Light-to-moderate drinking of 0.1 to 45.9 g ethanol per day was associated with a reduced risk of mortality from total cardiovascular disease among men.
|
|
|
For women, there was an excess risk of mortality from coronary heart disease among drinkers of
46.0 g ethanol per day compared with nondrinkers, and a reduced risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease among drinkers of 0.1 to 22.9 g ethanol per day. The multivariable hazard ratio (95% CI) of mortality for moderate-to-heavy drinkers compared with nondrinkers was 4.10 (1.63 to 10.3) for coronary heart disease and 3.29 (1.61 to 6.73) for ischemic cardiovascular disease, whereas that for light drinkers compared with nondrinkers was 0.74 (0.60 to 0.91) for total cardiovascular disease.
| Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
69.0 g ethanol per day was associated with increased risk of mortality from hemorrhagic stroke among men, whereas light-to-moderate drinking of 0.1 to 45.9 g ethanol per day was associated with reduced mortality from ischemic cardiovascular disease among men. For women, light drinking of 0.1 to 22.9 g ethanol per day showed an association with reduced mortality from ischemic cardiovascular disease. The excess mortality from hemorrhagic stroke associated with heavy alcohol consumption and the reduced mortality from ischemic cardiovascular disease associated with light-to-moderate alcohol consumption are consistent with the results from previous studies of whites and Japanese with regard to hemorrhagic stroke,1–10 ischemic stroke,9–11 and coronary heart disease.12–17
The excess mortality of hemorrhagic stroke may be partly influenced by alcohol-induced high blood pressure.23 Alcohol also leads to reduced platelet aggregation24 and enhanced fibrinolysis through increased secretion of plasminogen activators from endothelial cells.25 Moreover, the possible mechanisms by which light alcohol consumption may lead to reduced mortality of ischemic cardiovascular disease have been identified as elevated concentration of HDL cholesterol,26 reduced platelet aggregation,24 enhanced fibrinolysis,25 and reduced plasma fibrinogen levels.27
Our study demonstrated a reduced mortality from ischemic cardiovascular disease associated with light drinking of 0.1 to 22.9 g ethanol per day among Japanese women. Our finding is consistent with that of the Nurses Health study, which reported that light-to-moderate drinking of 1.5 to 29.9 g ethanol per day was associated with a similarly reduced morality from coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease.19 Furthermore, in the Swedish cohort study,20 an average consumption of 0 to 5 g ethanol per day by women was associated with reduced morality from ischemic stroke, but such an association was not found for men. The multivariable hazard ratio of morality from ischemic stroke was 0.6 (0.5 to 0.8) for women and 1.3 (0.9 to 2.0) for men compared with that for never-drinkers.
We detected an excess risk of mortality from coronary heart disease associated with drinkers of
46.0 g ethanol per day among women, albeit the number of deaths in heavy drinkers was small, but such an excess risk was not found among men (P for interaction=0.001). Heavy alcohol consumption enhances the probability of both atrial and life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias and atrioventricular block through the destabilization of potassium and magnesium metabolism and the stimulation of catecholamine.28,29 Further, women have lower alcohol dehydrogenase activity in the liver than men,30 so that women have higher blood alcohol concentrations than men after ingestion of the same dose of alcohol, even when the dose is adjusted for body weight.31 The Nurses Health study19 did not find the excess mortality, but the number of deaths among heavy drinkers of
30g ethanol per day in that cohort was also small (n=9). Further research is needed to understand the health consequences of heavy drinking in females.
Our study also showed an excess risk of mortality from total stroke, either hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke, among male ex-drinkers. The 8424 current drinkers at baseline who also responded to the 5-year follow-up comprised 285 ex-drinkers and 8139 continuing drinkers. The ex-drinkers may have stopped because of ill health, because the prevalence of a history of diabetes, liver disease, gallstone or gallbladder disease, gastric or duodenal ulcer, and tuberculosis at baseline was much higher for quitters than continuing drinkers. However, the prevalence of history of those diseases did not differ for female ex-drinkers and continuing drinkers.
The strengths of our study are its prospective design and the high statistical power for the detection of sex-specific associations of a wide range of alcohol consumption with mortality from total stroke, coronary heart disease, and total cardiovascular disease. Our findings for women are noteworthy because the evidence has been largely limited for Asian women.
The limitations of our study also need to be discussed. First, drinkers may consume different amounts of alcohol during occasional and weekend drinking. However, we could not estimate alcohol consumption resulting from binge drinking because the questionnaire did not ask this information. It has been suggested that binge drinking increases the risk of myocardial infarction.32 However, it can be assumed that binge drinking was not common for our study subjects, because 98% to 99% of heavy drinkers of
46.0 g ethanol per day reported consuming alcohol beverages almost every day. Second, we estimated alcohol consumption by the single self-administrated questionnaire, which would be liable to misclassification. However, there was a moderate correlation between alcohol consumption and serum
-glutamyl transferase, a marker of alcohol intake, for both sexes. The data on alcohol consumption in a 5-year follow-up survey were available from only 25 of the 45 communities. However, when we examined the subsample participants (10 214 men and 15 379 women) who completed the alcohol questionnaire at baseline and the followed-up surveys, we found that the proportions of the same category, the adjacent category, and the reversal category of alcohol consumption were 59%, 83%, and 0.08%, respectively, for men, and 90%, 91%, and 0.06%, respectively, for women. Third, we used the mortality data as endpoints rather than incidence data, which may lead to misclassification in the diagnosis of stroke, stroke subtypes, and coronary heart disease. The widespread use of computer tomography in local hospitals since the 1980s has probably made the diagnosis of stroke and its subtypes reported on the death certificates sufficiently accurate.33 For coronary heart disease, however, approximately one-fourth of ischemic heart disease deaths appearing on death certificates were misdiagnosed according to the validation studies.34,35 Finally, although hazard ratios were adjusted for selected cardiovascular risk factors and social factors, we cannot exclude the possibility that other risk factors such as socioeconomic status and psychosocial factors may have affected our findings.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the results of our study of a large cohort of Japanese men and women indicate that heavy alcohol consumption is associated with increased mortality from total stroke, particularly hemorrhagic stroke, and total cardiovascular disease for men, and with increased mortality from coronary heart disease for women. Also, light-to-moderate alcohol consumption may be associated with reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease for both men and women.
| Appendix |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
Sources of Funding
The Japan Collaborative Cohort Study was supported by grants-in-aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan (Monbusho); 61010076, 62010074, 63010074, 1010068, 2151065, 3151064, 4151063, 5151069, 6279102, 11181101, 17015022 and 18074011.
Disclosure
None.
Received March 14, 2008; accepted April 16, 2008.
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
2. Donahue RP, Abbott RD, Reed DM, Yano K. Alcohol and hemorrhagic stroke: The Honolulu Heart Program. JAMA. 1986; 255: 2311–2314.
3. Monforte R, Estruch R, Graus F, Nicolas JM, Urbano-Marquez A. High ethanol consumption as risk factor for intracerebral hemorrhage in young and middle-aged people. Stroke. 1990; 21: 1529–1532.
4. Gill JS, Shipley MJ, Tsementzis SA, Hornby RS, Gill SK, Hitchcock ER, Beevers DG. Alcohol consumption -a risk factor for hemorrhagic and non-hemorrhagic stroke. Am J Med. 1991; 90: 489–497.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
5. Klatsky AL, Armstrong MA, Friedman GD, Sidney S. Alcohol drinking and risk of hemorrhagic stroke. Neuroepidemiology. 2002; 21: 115–122.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
6. Iso H, Kitamura A, Shimamoto T, Sankai T, Naito Y, Sato S, Kiyama M, Iida M, Komachi Y. Alcohol intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease in middle-aged Japanese men. Stroke. 1995; 26: 767–773.
7. Kiyohara Y, Kato I, Iwamoto H, Nakayama K, Fujishima M. The impact of alcohol and hypertension on stroke incidence in a general Japanese population. The Hisayama Study. Stroke. 1995; 26: 368–372.
8. Emberson JR, Shaper AG, Wannamethee SG, Morris RW, Whincup PH. Alcohol intake in middle age and risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality: accounting for intake variation over time. Am J Epidemiol. 2005; 161: 856–863.
9. Iso H, Baba S, Mannami T, Sasaki S, Okada K, Konishi M, Tsugane S; JPHC Study Group. Alcohol consumption and risk of stroke among middle-age men: the JPHC Study Cohort I. Stroke. 2004; 35: 1124–1129.
10. Reynolds K, Lewis B, Nolen JD, Kinney GL, Sathya B, He J. Alcohol consumption and risk of stroke: a meta-analysis. JAMA. 2003; 289: 579–588.
11. Berger K, Ajani UA, Kase CS, Gaziano JM, Buring JE, Glynn RJ, Hennekens CH. Light-to-moderate alcohol consumption and risk of stroke among U.S. male physicians. N Engl J Med. 1999; 341: 1557–1564.
12. Yano K, Rhoads GG, Kagan A. Coffee, alcohol and risk of coronary heart disease among Japanese men living in Hawaii. N Engl J Med. 1977; 297: 405–409.[Abstract]
13. Langer RD, Criqui MH, Reed DM. Lipoproteins and blood pressure as biological pathways for effect of moderate alcohol consumption on coronary heart disease. Circulation. 1992; 85: 910–915.
14. Shaper AG, Wannamethee G, Walker M. Alcohol and coronary heart disease: a perspective from the British Regional Heart Study. Int J Epidemiol. 1994; 23: 482–494.
15. Gordon T, Kannel WB. Drinking habits and cardiovascular disease: the Framingham Study. Am Heart J. 1985; 110: 331–334.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
16. Miller GJ, Beckles GL, Maude GH, Carson DC. Alcohol consumption: protection against coronary heart disease and risks to health. Int J Epidemiol. 1990; 19: 923–930.
17. Kitamura A, Iso H, Sankai T, Naito Y, Sato S, Kiyama M, Okamura T, Nakagawa Y, Iida M, Shimamoto T, Komachi Y. Alcohol intake and premature coronary heart disease in urban Japanese men. Am J Epidemiol. 1998; 147: 59–65.
18. Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Willett WC, Speizer FE, Hennekens CH. A prospective study of moderate alcohol consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke in women. N Engl J Med. 1988; 319: 267–273.[Abstract]
19. Fuchs CS, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Giovannucci EL, Manson JE, Kawachi I, Hunter DJ, Hankinson SE, Hennekens CH, Rosner B. Alcohol consumption and mortality among women. N Engl J Med. 1995; 332: 1245–1250.
20. Hansagi H, Romelsjö A, Gerhardsson de Verdier M, Andreasson S, Leifman A. Alcohol consumption and stroke mortality. 20-year follow-up of 15,077 men and women. Stroke. 1995; 26: 1768–1773.
21. Ohno Y, Tamakoshi A, JACC Study Group. Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk Sponsored by Monbusho (Japan Collaborative Cohort Study). J Epidemiol. 2001; 11: 144–150.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
22. Date C, Fukui M, Yamamoto A, Wakai K, Ozeki A, Motohashi Y, Adachi C, Okamoto N, Kurosawa M, Tokudome Y, Kurisu Y, Watanabe Y, Ozasa K, Nakagawa S, Tokui N, Yoshimura T, Tamakoshi A; JACC Study Group. Reproducibility and validity of a self-administered food frequency questionnaire used in the JACC study. J Epidemiol. 2005; 15 (Suppl): 9–23.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
23. Stokes GS. Hypertension and alcohol: is there a link? J Chronic Dis. 1982; 35: 759–762.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
24. Moncada S, Randomski NW. The problems and the promise of prostaglandin influences in atherogenesis. Ann NY Acad Sci. 1985; 454: 121–130.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
25. Laug WE. Ethyl alcohol enhances plasminogen activator secretion by endothelial cells. JAMA. 1983; 250: 772–776.
26. Soyama Y, Miura K, Morikawa Y, Nishijo M, Nakanishi Y, Naruse Y, Kagamimori S, Nakagawa H, Oyabe Study. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol and risk of stroke in Japanese men and women: the Oyabe Study. Stroke. 2003; 34: 863–868.
27. Meade TW, Imeson J, Stirling Y. Effects of changes in smoking and other characteristics on clotting factors and the risk of ischaemic heart disease. Lancet. 1987; 2: 986–988.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
28. Koskinen P, Kupari M. Alcohol and cardiac arrhythmias. BMJ. 1992; 304: 1394–1395.
29. Regan T. Alcohol and the cardiovascular system. JAMA. 1990; 264: 377–381.
30. Chrostek L, Jelski W, Szmitkowski M, Puchalski Z. Gender-related differences in hepatic activity of alcohol dehydrogenase isoenzymes and aldehyde dehydrogenase in humans. J Clin Lab Anal. 2003; 17: 93–96.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
31. Frezza M, di Padova C, Pozzato G, Terpin M, Baraona E, Lieber CS. High blood alcohol levels in women. The role of decreased gastric alcohol dehydrogenase activity and first-pass metabolism. N Engl J Med. 1990; 322: 95–99.[Abstract]
32. Murray RP, Connett JE, Tyas SL, Bond R, Ekuma O, Silversides CK, Barnes GE. Alcohol volume, drinking pattern, and cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality: is there a U-shaped function? Am J Epidemiol. 2002; 155: 242–248.
33. Iso H, Jacobs DR Jr, Goldman L. Accuracy of death certificate diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage and nonhemorrhagic stroke. The Minnesota Heart Survey. Am J Epidemiol. 1990; 132: 993–998.
34. Yamashita T, Ozawa H, Aono H, Hosokawa H, Saito I, Ikebe T. Heart disease deaths on death certificates re-evaluated by clinical records in a Japanese city. Jpn Circ J. 1997; 61: 331–338.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
35. Baba S, Ozawa H, Sakai Y, Terao A, Konishi M, Tatara K. Heart disease deaths in a Japanese urban area evaluated by clinical and police records. Circulation. 1994; 89: 109–115.
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
J. W. Sull, S.-W. Yi, C. M. Nam, and H. Ohrr Binge Drinking and Mortality From All Causes and Cerebrovascular Diseases in Korean Men and Women: A Kangwha Cohort Study Stroke, September 1, 2009; 40(9): 2953 - 2958. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Stroke Home | Subscriptions | Archives | Feedback | Authors | Help | AHA Journals Home | Search Copyright © 2008 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited. |