Inflammation may be a silent heart disease risk in healthy women, new study suggests

A silent heart disease risk factor may explain why some women end up having heart attacks and strokes despite seeming like they are healthy, a new study suggests. The analysis of 30 years of data from more than 12,000 women revealed that inflammation was comparable to high LDL cholesterol as a heart disease risk factor, researchers reported Friday at the European Society of Cardiology Congress meeting in Madrid. The results were simultaneously published in the European Heart Journal .