American Heart Association volunteer expert, Roxana Mehran, M.D., FACC, FAHA, MSCAI, FESC, is Mount Sinai professor in Cardiovascular Clinical Research and Outcomes, Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Research and Clinical Trials, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.

Offering perspective on AHA Scientific Sessions 2020 Presentation 314 
copyright American Heart Association 2020

"It longs for allowing us to understand that such a thing does exist, that there is an important association with ischemic heart disease, that we must evaluate it in a prospective fashion. And there are no excuses in not having women, blacks, Hispanics, non-whites included in our clinical trials, evaluating post-traumatic stress disorder and its impact on ischemic heart disease. To me, this calls for a huge action for our armed forces to make sure that we care for their mental health, that we pay attention, not just to their, of course, to their mental health to reduce their stresses, but very importantly, surveying them for ischemic heart disease over time, making sure there is great risk stratification, risk evaluation, and making sure that they know their risks, that they understand what measures to take to mitigate those risks and control the risk factors as best as possible."