A prospective study of risk factors associated with young patients of myocardial infarction

Introduction: The prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) has progressively increased in India during the later half of the half century and is the major cause of morbidity and mortality burden in the world. Global burden of disease study estimate that by the year 2020, the burden of atheroembolic cardiovascular disease in India would surpass that in any other region in the world. Materials and methods: The study was conducted in Department of Medicine on 100 cases of acute myocardial infarction, if they satisfied the following selection criteria. From May 2020 to April 2021. Patients more than 18 years and less than 45 years of age presented with complaints of chest pain, palpitation (or) breathlessness (or) a combination of these were subjected primarily to electrocardiographic studies to confirm myocardial infarction. All patients having ST segment elevation (> 1 mm in inferior oriented leads (or) > 2 mm in anterior oriented leads) in at least two consecutive leads were considered to have myocardial infarction and then included in the study. Results: 100 young patients (18 – 45 yrs.) of acute myocardial infarction with average age of 36.24 ± 4.32 years were studied. Maximum (84%) were males. Youngest being 25 yrs. of age and the maximum incidence of the disease was found in 3rd decade. Prevalence of family history of coronary heart disease was 35%. No single patient had history of premature coronary artery disease in the family (i.e. CAD in male < 55 years, female < 65 years). Maximum patients belonged to lower class category (52%) followed by middle class (28%). Only 20% patients were from upper class; 55% of patients were smokers. Conclusion: The incidence of Myocardial Infarction is rising in young individuals owing to change in lifestyle pattern, eating habits, more stress and workload. Incidence remained highest in males as compared to females. Highly associated risk factor in young myocardial infarction patients are dyslipidaemia and smoking. Other traditional risk factors associated with myocardial infarction like diabetes, hypertension, obesity are also very much correlated and their incidence also seems to be increasing