Heart Attack

People who drink four or more cups of coffee a day increase their risk of a heart attack by 40 percent and those at high risk for heart attacks should consider limiting their consumption, researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, Calif., say in a new study.But the study, which is the latest contribution to a decades-long debate over the possible link between cardiovascular disease and coffee, was immediately assailed by critics."This beverage is consumed by most adults in this country.

PARIS -- Yves Montand, the French actor and singer whose smooth voice and easy manner defined sexiness for more than one generation of admirers around the world, died of a heart attack yesterday. He was 70.His companion, Carole Amiel, with whom he had a son, Valentin, three years ago, was at his bedside.Mr. Montand's last words, reported on French television, were, "I have lived well, and lived well enough not to regret anything."Though he was a popular singer and actor from his start in show business some 47 years ago, Mr. Montand was known equally well for his political activism.

A state medical examiner's autopsy report yesterday confirmed that a 71-year-old Fort Washington man who was killed in an accident on I-95 in Savage Friday afternoon suffered a heart attack when a trailer hitch crashed through his windshield.Meanwhile, state police investigators reviewing the death of Richard Arthur Bauer, of the 9500 block of Potomac Drive, say that the 10-pound chunk of metal debris smashed through the victim's windshield after being struck by another vehicle.Mr. Bauer died when his southbound vehicle careened off the roadway, crossed the median and struck a vehicle in the northbound lane, said Mike McKelvin, a state police spokesman.

Former Jackson State and Baltimore Colts standout Willie Richardson was listed in serious condition yesterday, four days after the former All-Pro wide receiver suffered a heart attack playing golf."

A Baltimore man accused of first-degree murder and robbery in the death of an 88-year-old traveling salesman who died of a heart attack during a mugging last year has been acquitted of the charges.The jury in Baltimore Circuit Court took about 90 minutes Friday before finding Tony A. Lawson, 31, of the 900 block of E. North Ave., not guilty in the robbery and murder of Frank Altman.Mr. Altman, who despite his age worked full time and was a traveling legend of sorts for the Harry C. Walterhoefer Paper Co., died Nov. 11, 1992, moments after a thief jumped him on his East Baltimore sales route and took his wallet.

Tragedy has struck the Baltimore high school basketball community again.Larry Ellison, a 17-year-old senior starter for Mervo's basketball team, suffered a fatal heart attack while sleeping at home Jan. 2, Mervo athletic director Woody Williams said.Last April, Rodney Beasley, a starter for Walbrook, died in an automobile accident after an all-star basketball game.Williams said an autopsy revealed that Ellison had an enlarged heart, although there was no previous indication of a medical problem.

BETHESDA -- Federal health officials recommended yesterday that all heart attack patients who need clot-dissolving drugs receive them within 30 minutes of arrival at an emergency room. They issued a set of specific guidelines aimed at reducing the deaths from the leading killer of American adults.The aim is to reduce death and disability by administering timely injections of clot-dissolving drugs such as streptokinase and tpa, which are also known as thrombolytics. The benefit of such therapy has been proven conclusively in several trials involving tens of thousands of heart attack victims in many countries.

WASHINGTON -- Regular aspirin use appears to reduce the risk of heart attacks brought on by outbursts of anger, researchers said yesterday.The scientists said surveys of more than 1,600 heart attack patients at dozens of medical centers and hospitals across the country indicate that outbursts of anger more than double the risk of such attacks in the following two hours.But the researchers, from Harvard Medical School and New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston, said it appeared that the use of aspirin "severs the link" between the heart attack and anger as a triggering episode.

People who suffer from depression not only endure the well-known symptoms of hopelessness and despair but also run a heightened risk of developing a heart attack, according to a Johns Hopkins study released yesterday.Researchers who followed 2,000 residents of East Baltimore for more than a decade found that those with histories of clinical depression had a 4 1/2 times greater chance of having a heart attack than did those with no such history."For people who are depressed, this is all the more reason to get treated," said Dr. William Eaton, a professor of mental hygiene at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.