The Female Heart: The Truth about Women and Coronary Artery Disease

Legato, a cardiac researcher and teacher at the Columbia University School of Medicine, and Colman ( Late Bloomers ), a medical writer, state here that while the much-better-publicized breast cancer kills 40,000 American women annually, 250,000 will die of heart attacks in the same period. Even so, suggest the authors, most women and their doctors fail to take the symptoms of coronary artery disease (CAD) seriously--until it's too late. Long on conclusions to current studies but short on the case histories that would have humanized and dramatized such data, this detailed, accessible book is a virtual owner's manual, addressing the physiological marks that distinguish the female ``fist-size pump,'' or heart. Most valuable is the volume's profile of the high-risk woman and a later section, ``When Things Go Wrong,'' featuring vivid descriptions of what can happen during and after a heart attack, including in-hospital procedures. The authors end with a strong plea for more funding of studies on women, children and heart disease, while urging women--``the caregivers of society''--to ``learn to take better care of ourselves.'' Illustrations not seen by PW. (Aug.)