Homocysteine and major coronary events: a prospective population study amongst women.

<bold>Objectives: </bold>To study serum homocysteine concentration for its prediction of major coronary heart disease events amongst women.<bold>Design: </bold>A case-control study nested within a follow-up study. Subjects. A total of 74 and 75 major coronary events (coronary deaths or nonfatal myocardial infarction) which occurred in women with and without known heart disease, respectively, during a 13-year follow-up and two individually matched controls per case. Main outcome measure. Major coronary event.<bold>Results: </bold>Amongst women with baseline heart disease, the relative risk (95% CI) of such events, adjusted for age, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, serum cholesterol and body mass index, was 3.32 (1.05-10.5) in the highest homocysteine quintile compared with the lowest quintile. Amongst women free of heart disease at baseline, the corresponding relative risk value was 0.77 (0.24-2.45).<bold>Conclusions: </bold>This prospective study support the hypothesis that homocysteine is a risk factor for coronary events in women with heart disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]