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Findings from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trial showed that taking conjugated equine estrogens did not reduce the risk for coronary events in postmenopausal women who had undergone hysterectomies. A subgroup analysis, however, suggested an age interaction, in which estrogen conferred a cardiovascular benefit on the younger subjects. To pursue this issue further, the WHI Coronary-Artery Calcium Study was designed to determine whether the younger women treated with estrogens had lower coronary-artery calcium scores than those treated with placebo. This substudy was restricted to women who were 50 to 59 years old at the time of randomization; follow-up scans were obtained an average of 8.7 years later.
Coronary-artery calcium scores wer…