Air pollution ups the risk of repeat heart attack

Repeat heart attack has also been included among the harms of Air pollution. The other major risk of other major health risks associated with respiratory infections, lung cancer and heart disease, says a study.

Heart patients living in high-pollution areas were 40 percent more prone to have a repeat heart attack in comparison to patients living in low-pollution areas, Yariv Gerber of Tel Aviv University's School of Public Health at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Israel report says.

According to Gerber, aim of the study was to substantiate that relation and find out the long-term effects of air pollution on myocardial infarction (MI) patients.

In common terms MI is referred as a heart attack. MI is caused due to interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, as a consequence heart cells die, says a Tel Aviv statement.

The study was done on 1,120 first-time MI patients who had been admitted to one of eight hospitals in central Israel between 1992 and 1993, these patients were in the age of 65 at the time of admittance. The medical history of the patients was followed for 19 years, till 2011 to reach at this conclusion.

The patients living in most polluted environment were 43 percent more prone to have a second heart attack or suffer congestive heart failure and 46 percent more likely to suffer a stroke in comparison to the patients who lived in areas with the pollution level was lowest.

The research also observed that the patients e who were exposed to air pollution were 35 percent more likely to die in nearly 20 years following their first heart attack in comparison to the patients who were exposed to lower levels of pollution.

Professor Yaacov Drory has co-authored the study. The research was presented at the San Diego Epidemiological Meeting of the American Heart Association in March and the annual meeting of the Israeli Heart Society in April.

--with inputs from IANS