Respiratory Infections May Trigger Acute Myocardial Infarction

HealthDay News — The risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) increases sharply after a respiratory infection, according to a study published in the Internal Medicine Journal.

The researchers looked at 578 AMI patients and found that 17% had experienced symptoms of respiratory infection within 7 days before the AMI, and 21% within the prior month. The team concluded that the risk of AMI is 17 times higher in the week after a respiratory infection.

In a second analysis, the researchers focused on upper-respiratory tract infections.

“For those participants who reported milder upper-respiratory tract infection symptoms, the risk increase was less, but was still elevated by 13-fold,” study author Lorcan Ruane, from the University of Sydney, said in a university news release. “Although upper-respiratory infections are less severe, they are far more common than lower-respiratory tract symptoms. Therefore, it is important to understand their relationship to the risk of heart attacks.”

Reference

Ruane L, Buckley T, Hoo SYS, Hansen PS, McCormack C, Shaw E, Fethney J, Toffer GH. Triggering of acute myocardial infarction by respiratory infection. Intern Med J. 2017 May;47(5):522-529. doi: 10.1111/imj.13377.