Prevalence of recreational drug use in myocardial infarction patients without standard modifiable risk factors: Insights from a multicenter prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND

The prevalence of recreational drug use in myocardial infarction (MI) patients without standard modifiable cardiovascular risk factors (SMuRF) namely hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes and smoking, remains unknown.

METHODS

All patients enrolled in The Addiction in Intensive Cardiac Care Units (ADDICT-ICCU) study, a French multicenter prospective observational study which systematically assessed the use of recreational drug within 2 h of admission, and presenting with MI but without known coronary artery disease were included. We compared patients with and without SMuRF.

RESULTS

Among the 243 patients included, 31 (12.8 %) had no documented SMuRF. Recreational drugs were detected in 1 SMuRF-less patient (3 %) compared to 29 (14 %) patients in those with ≥1 SMuRFs (p = 0.17). When considering only ST-elevation MI patients (n = 77), none of the SMuRF-less patients (n = 13) had detected recreational drugs contrary to those with ≥1 SMuRFs (12 %, p = 0.40).

CONCLUSION

Recreational drug use was scarce in SMuRF-less MI patients and not different when compared to those with ≥1 SMuRF. Further research to explore non-traditional risk factors as an important cause of first MI are still needed.