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Objective: To assess the impact of informing women about the presence of breast arterial calcification (BAC) on mammography by determining whether those notified about the presence of BAC would seek cardiovascular evaluation., Methods: This IRB-approved prospective study included 494 patients who underwent screening mammography between June 8, 2021, and April 22, 2022. Mammograms were reviewed by a radiologist, and patients were notified via e-mail about the presence or absence of BAC. Patients with BAC were advised to discuss the results with their physicians and were surveyed 3 months later. Frequencies and proportions were calculated for study participation, presence of BAC, survey participation, health actions, and perceptions. Confidence intervals were calculated for proportions of health actions and perceptions., Results: Of 494 study participants, 68/494 (13.8%; 95% CI: 10.9%-17.1%) had BAC detected on mammography and 42/68 (61.8%; 95% CI: 61.1%-62.1%) with BAC completed the follow-up survey at 3 months. Of these 42 survey respondents, 24/42 (57.1%; 95% CI: 41.1%-72.3%) reported discussing results with their primary care physician (PCP) or a cardiologist. In addition, 34/42 (81.0%; 95% CI: 65.9%-91.4%) reported finding it helpful to receive information about BAC and 32/42 (76.2%; 95% CI: 60.6%-88.0%) believed all women should be informed about BAC after mammography., Conclusion: After notification about the presence of BAC on screening mammography, the majority (57.1%) of survey respondents reported discussing the results with a PCP or cardiologist. These results suggest that providing mammography patients with information about BAC may promote preventive cardiovascular health., (© Society of Breast Imaging 2023. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Purpose: To evaluate awareness about cardiovascular (CVD) risk among a racially and ethnically diverse cohort of health system employees., Design: Cross-sectional study., Setting: Voluntary survey of health system employees during an annual CVD awareness and screening event., Subjects: 759 health system employees., Measures: We performed initial CVD screening measurements (blood pressure, body mass index) and collected patient-reported answers to questions about their own CVD risk factors (hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, overweight, smoking, physical inactivity and family history of CVD) and whether or not they believed that CVD is preventable. Subjects were offered in-depth follow-up CVD screening (lipid panel, hs-CRP, hemoglobin A1c), if interested., Analysis: Continuous measures were compared across sex and racial/ethnic subsets using a t test and analysis of variance technique. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the employee's willingness to undergo further comprehensive screening., Results: African American, Hispanic, and Asian employees were younger than white employees ( P < .0001). More than one-quarter of African Americans reported a history of hypertension, a higher rate than for other subgroups ( P = .001). The rate of self-reported diabetes was highest in African American and Asian employees ( P = .001). African Americans had a 54% reduced odds of electing to pursue follow-up CVD screening (odds ratio: .46, 95% confidence interval = .24-.91, P = .025)., Conclusion: Presence of CVD risk factors and knowledge of their importance differ among racial and ethnic groups of health system employees in our cohort as does interest in pursuing follow-up screening once risk factors are identified. Development of evidence-based customization strategies by racial and ethnic group may improve understanding of and interest in CVD risk factors and advance prevention. The data from this study will inform future research and strategies for employee health promotion., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Competing Interests: The American Heart Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists make every effort to avoid any actual or potential conflicts of interest that may arise as a result of an outside relationship or a personal, professional, or business interest of a member of the writing panel. Specifically, all members of the writing group are required to complete and submit a Disclosure Questionnaire showing all such relationships that might be perceived as real or potential conflicts of interest.

In the past two decades, focused research on women at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) has helped to clarify our understanding of some of the sex-specific factors that are important in the prevention and early detection of coronary atherosclerosis with a resultant 30 % decrease in the number of women dying from CVD. In spite of these advances, CVD, specifically, ischemic heart disease due to coronary atherosclerosis is the leading cause of cardiovascular death of women in the USA. The 2010 landmark Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, "Women's Health Research--Progress, Pitfalls and Promise," highlighted the fact that although major progress had been made in reducing cardiovascular mortality in women, there were disparities in disease burden among subgroups of women, particularly those women who are socially disadvantaged because of race, ethnicity, income level, and educational attainment [1]. The IOM recommended targeted research on these subpopulations of women with the highest risk and burden of disease. Causes of disparities are multifactorial and are related to differences in risk factor prevalence, access to care, use of evidence-based guidelines, and social and environmental factors. In this article, we review a few of the contributing factors to the disparities in ischemic heart disease in women with a focus on the subgroups of women of Black, Latino, and South Asian descent who are at high risk for morbidity and mortality from CVD.