| Cardiovascular disease (CVD), including heart disease | | | | emergency room. Even more troubling worrying, |
| and stroke, remains as the foremost cause of death in | | | | another 250,000 people with heart attacks will |
| the United States despite progress in prevention, | | | | succumb before they ever reach the hospital. Most of |
| detection, and treatment. CVD is a killer of people in | | | | these are sudden deaths caused by cardiac arrest. |
| the prime of life, with more than half of all deaths | | | | CVD includes dysfunctional conditions of the heart, |
| occurring among women. | | | | arteries, and veins that supply oxygen to vital |
| According to the Centers for Disease Control and | | | | life-sustaining areas of the body like the brain, the heart |
| Prevention, one-third of those suffering heart attacks | | | | itself, and other vital organs. A lack of oxygen causes |
| do not survive, with about 340,000 of them dying in the | | | | the tissue or organ to die. |