Heart attack: the causes of the infarction are still very mysterious

Why do some people have heart attacks and others don’t? Mystery. A new study published in the journal The Lancet demonstrated that approximately 15% of patients with a heart attack had no risk factors.

The research was carried out using the Swedish database Swedeheart, analyzing data from 62,000 patients who suffered an acute myocardial infarction between 2006 and 2018.

Patients without risk factors have a higher mortality rate

The results of this study show that approximately 15% of these patients had no modifiable risk factor (diabetes, hypertension, smoking, dyslipidemia). In addition, patients with no risk factors who had recourse to primary coronary intervention (insertion of a stent, for example) were as numerous as those with at least one risk factor (70%). One explanation put forward is that patients without risk factors were less likely to have benefited from therapy “protective” (statins, beta-blockers, etc.).

Furthermore, the results show that after the occurrence of a cardiovascular accident, patients without risk factors have a higher mortality rate than those with at least one risk factor (11% versus 8%), in particular women (18%). “These results underline the need for evidence to implement appropriate therapies quickly after a heart attack, without assuming that the risk of certain patients is low”, analyze the researchers.

Need for biomarkers

This study also highlights “the need for biomarkers to more reliably identify patients at the highest risk of developing cardiovascular disease before it occurs”, writes the LNE Group in a press release.

With 140,000 deaths per year, cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death in France, as is the case in most industrialized countries.