HIGH-PRESSURE work deadlines can cause a six-fold increase in the risk of suffering a heart attack in the following 24 hours.

Researchers say that shortterm but intense pressure seemed to have a greater impact on the heart than stress build-up over the course of a year.

The study, involving more than 3500 people, found that stress encountered at work featured heavily in the risk of a heart attack.

There are 270,000 heart attacks each year in the UK, with 150,000 deaths.

The latest research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, looked at the number of first-time heart attacks in healthy people aged 45-70 during the 1990s.

The team, from the Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, looked at events both in and out of workwhich might increase the risk of heart attack in those studied.