Health Watch is a public service of the Office of News and Publications and is intended to provide general information only and should not replace the advice of a medical professional. You should contact your physician if you have questions about any of these topics.

This week on Health Watch, we're talking about the Dallas Heart Study — a massive research effort being conducted by doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center to see how heart disease affects the population.

Doctors conducting the study have been able to diagnose a lot of patients with diseases that are risk factors for heart disease. They have also looked at data from thousands of people to see population trends. Among the findings is that African Americans have a much higher risk of high heart weight than white Americans — regardless of body weight or type. This condition seems to be related to high blood pressure. Dr. Mark Drazner, the UT Southwestern cardiologist who led this part of the study, says this condition is associated with just about everything that can go wrong with the heart — heart attack, strokes and heart failure. This means it's especially important for African Americans to be screened and treated for high blood pressure.

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October 2006

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