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Smoking confers elevated heart attack risk
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A greater emphasis of public education on the hazards of waterpipe and cigarette smoking is needed to reduce the risk for MI at a younger age in Saudi Arabia, according to findings presented at the Annual Conference of the Saudi Heart Association.
Farhan Abdul Wali Khan, MD, and colleagues sought to assess the association of smoking with other CV risk factors and its effect on clinical outcomes after acute MI.
“Like studies from Western countries, our data suggest that smokers have heart attacks at a significantly younger age than nonsmokers,” Khan, an assistant consultant of cardiology of King Abdullah Medical City in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, said in a press release. “Moreover, smokers have heart attacks even without other risk factors including diabetes and hypertension, and they have poorer outcomes.”
The researchers conducted a retrospective single-center study at King Abdullah Medical City, the only tertiary cardiac service in Mecca. Patients with acute MI between 2015 and 2018 with recorded smoking history were included in the study.
Of the 1,554 patients with acute MI included in the study, 38% were current waterpipe or cigarette smokers. Of those who smoked, 51% were residents of Mecca and 35% were South Asian patients.
Ninety-eight percent of smokers were men and had acute MI at a younger age compared with nonsmokers (mean age, 53 vs. 59 years; P < .001) despite having a lower prevalence of diabetes (50.7% vs. 58.4%; P = .013) and hypertension (52% vs. 62.5%; P < .001), the researchers wrote in an abstract.
Smokers were more likely to have STEMI and a higher incidence of complications including pulmonary edema (3.4% vs. 0.9%; P = .001) and cardiac arrest (5.3% vs. 3.1%; P = .042), Khan and colleagues wrote.
Smokers trended toward higher in-hospital mortality compared with nonsmokers (4% vs. 2.4%; P = .08), Khan and colleagues wrote.
“Campaigns are needed to raise awareness about the harmful effects of waterpipe and cigarette smoking, particularly in young people so that they never take up the habit,” Khan said in a press release. “People of all ages can improve their health and reduce their risk of heart problems if they quit smoking.” – by Earl Holland Jr.
Reference:
Khan FAW, et al. Association of smoking with acute myocardial infarction and clinical outcomes in cosmopolitan population of Makkah. Presented at: Annual Conference of the Saudi Heart Association; March 7-9, 2019; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Disclosures: Cardiology Today could not confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.