Heart woes top list of hospital stays

Congestive heart failure, hardening of the arteries, heartbeat irregularities and heart attack are four of the five most common reasons elderly Americans go into the hospital, according to a U.S. government report issued last week.

The four conditions accounted for nearly 2.4 million hospital stays. Pneumonia was the second-leading reason for hospital admissions among the elderly, with 713,000 admissions, said the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. It looked at data from hospitals responsible for 90% of all discharges in the United States covering all patients, including those without insurance. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.