Editorial: Cheney's blockages / His health should be of national concern [View All]

[PA Democrat]

Dick Cheney's knees may not seem worth a second look. However, the vice president's latest hospitalization to repair aneurysms in both knees raises red flags that deserve more attention.

Most people breathed a sigh of relief that Mr. Cheney's hospitalization had nothing to do with his long history of heart problems. He has had four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, two angioplasties and surgery to implant a pacemaker-like device that can prevent sudden death from an erratic heart beat.

Those aneurysms, however, had everything to do with Mr. Cheney's heart problems. The disease underlying most heart attacks -- atherosclerosis -- usually is a body-wide problem.

Deposits of cholesterol and other material that plug arteries in the heart also form in blood vessels elsewhere in the body. Atherosclerosis takes a toll on artery walls that can lead to weak spots, which balloon out and form an aneurysm almost like a bubble on a garden hose. The disease also can plug blood vessels in the legs and neck, for instance, in ways that sharply increase the risk of a stroke.

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/05270/578234.stm