Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
House Call: Heart Disease No. 1 Cause of Death in U.S.
Aired February 27, 2003 - 07:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It's the "Night Shtick," it's the "House Call." What's it going to be? Surprise, surprise. A "House Call." Let's check in with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is going to look into the top health stories of the day.
Good morning -- Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: That was quite a little sense of drama getting in to you this morning.
GUPTA: That's right, yes. And foreboding maybe of what's to come.
Hey, listen, heart disease, we've talked about this a lot, Paula. No. 1 killer of both men and women alike. There are a lot of resources being targeted in diagnosing and treating heart disease.
One of the gold standards' test is something called the treadmill test, a stress test. People actually get on this treadmill and actually walk along, and have several things measured as they're doing that -- their blood pressure, their pulse rate and electrical activity of the heart. All of those tests being done while they're actually on the treadmill.
Doctors did sort of an interesting thing at the Cleveland Clinic, which is one of the giants in cardiology. They did an interesting thing. They actually measured the heart activity in the minutes after someone got off the treadmill. And they found that in the three minutes after someone got off the treadmill, if there was a regular heartbeat activity, that was actually a stronger predictor of how a patient might do in the long term versus how their activity was while they were on the treadmill.
Again, those minutes after the treadmill more important even than what they were like after the treadmill -- I'm not sure what that is.
But the whole point of the test being that if people monitored...
ZAHN: Sanjay.
GUPTA: Yes. ZAHN: We've been complaining about the promos for the show, so we're just going to do them for your segment all morning long.
GUPTA: OK.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Sorry about that, doc.
GUPTA: I was going to toss it out. I was going to start talking about the cost of war.
But, Paula, a simple message really for patients and doctors alike really. Not only should people be looking at how someone does while they're on the treadmill, which can last from 10 to 12 minutes, but that three-minute period afterwards also being very important. That's going to be an important message for people as they do this test.
Paula, also next hour, we want to talk about ephedra, a largely unregulated industry, a huge industry, possibly linked to some very high-profile deaths. What is the substance? Why might it be so deadly? We'll take a good look at it -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks, Sanjay.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired February 27, 2003 - 07:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It's the "Night Shtick," it's the "House Call." What's it going to be? Surprise, surprise. A "House Call." Let's check in with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is going to look into the top health stories of the day.
Good morning -- Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: That was quite a little sense of drama getting in to you this morning.
GUPTA: That's right, yes. And foreboding maybe of what's to come.
Hey, listen, heart disease, we've talked about this a lot, Paula. No. 1 killer of both men and women alike. There are a lot of resources being targeted in diagnosing and treating heart disease.
One of the gold standards' test is something called the treadmill test, a stress test. People actually get on this treadmill and actually walk along, and have several things measured as they're doing that -- their blood pressure, their pulse rate and electrical activity of the heart. All of those tests being done while they're actually on the treadmill.
Doctors did sort of an interesting thing at the Cleveland Clinic, which is one of the giants in cardiology. They did an interesting thing. They actually measured the heart activity in the minutes after someone got off the treadmill. And they found that in the three minutes after someone got off the treadmill, if there was a regular heartbeat activity, that was actually a stronger predictor of how a patient might do in the long term versus how their activity was while they were on the treadmill.
Again, those minutes after the treadmill more important even than what they were like after the treadmill -- I'm not sure what that is.
But the whole point of the test being that if people monitored...
ZAHN: Sanjay.
GUPTA: Yes. ZAHN: We've been complaining about the promos for the show, so we're just going to do them for your segment all morning long.
GUPTA: OK.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Sorry about that, doc.
GUPTA: I was going to toss it out. I was going to start talking about the cost of war.
But, Paula, a simple message really for patients and doctors alike really. Not only should people be looking at how someone does while they're on the treadmill, which can last from 10 to 12 minutes, but that three-minute period afterwards also being very important. That's going to be an important message for people as they do this test.
Paula, also next hour, we want to talk about ephedra, a largely unregulated industry, a huge industry, possibly linked to some very high-profile deaths. What is the substance? Why might it be so deadly? We'll take a good look at it -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks, Sanjay.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
