Russert's Death Grim Reminder of Heart Risks

The heart attack that claimed Tim Russert’s life yesterday was a textbook example of a one of modern medicine's blind spots. Roughly 300,000 Americans die of unexpected, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year, the Wall Street Journal reports. Doctors can predict the likelihood of an incident happening in the next 10 years, but they can’t tell if a patient is in imminent danger.  

Russert knew he was at risk, and was undergoing treatment. As recently as April, he had a positive exercise stress test, but that means little, one cardiologist said: “You can still have plaque and be at risk.” It’s unclear if Russert was taking cholesterol-lowering statins, but even those aren’t reliable, the cardiologist said. “We have to look for other means.” (More Tim Russert stories.)