Heart Attacks and Normal Arteries
Bamberger Health and Wellness -- Everett and Lynnwood, WA -- (425) 355-4176
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Heart Attacks and Normal Arteries Bamberger Health and Wellness -- Everett and Lynnwood, WA -- (425) 355-4176
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Heart attack can occur with normal arteries - Among heart attack victims who undergo angiographic study between 1% and 12% are found to have normal arteries. Why some people with healthy heart arteries suffer an attack is unclear. It is a condition referred to as myocardial infarction with angiographically normal coronary arteries, or MINC. The investigators found that MINC patients had fewer artery-disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or chest pain. but were significantly more likely to suffer migraine headaches or Raynaud's phenomenon. Based on questionnaires about symptoms of these conditions, Researchers also measured whether subjects showed signs of infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV), Chlamydia pneumoniae bacteria, or Helicobacter pylori bacteria, all of which can cause inflammation as well as an immune response. Recent research has linked long-term infection and inflammation to the development of artery disease. Measuring antibodies in patients' blood samples, found no substantial differences between the two groups in the number of antibodies to any of the infections. When compared with a group of healthy subjects, however, all heart attack patients, those with and without MINC, showed a higher prevalence of antibodies to all three infections. One interesting finding was that six MINC patients had suffered some type of illness with fever during the 2 weeks before their heart attacks, but no artery disease patient had. This suggests that perhaps widespread inflammation or a specific component of infection may trigger artery blockage in MINC patients. The researchers note, however, that a specific infection link to MINC is unclear since antibodies were similar in both groups of heart attack patients --- Chest 2/2000
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