Sudden heart attack rare in adolescents

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Sudden heart attack or "acute myocardial infarction" is quite rare among adolescents, but when it does occur it is often associated with drug abuse and tobacco use, and males are at much greater risk than are females, according to researchers.

"While myocardial infarction is considered primarily a disease of older adults," lead researcher Dr. William T. Mahle told Reuters Health, "adolescents may rarely develop acute myocardial infarction."

Mahle and colleagues at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta analyzed 4 years worth of data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample -- largest database of hospital discharges in the US. The findings are published in the August issue of the Journal of Pediatrics.

According to the team's report in the Journal Pediatrics, in the United States, there are an estimated 157 hospital admissions each year for heart attack in young people between the ages of 13 to 18 years. The incidence is about 6.6 per million patient-years.

An in-depth look at 123 of these subjects revealed that 80 percent were males and 23 percent had a history of substance abuse, which included cocaine in 41 percent and amphetamines in 31 percent.

A history of cigarette smoking was reported in roughly 12 percent of adolescents who suffered a heart attack.

Smoking appears to increase the odds of acute heart attack more than fourfold, Mahle and colleagues report.

SOURCE: Journal of Pediatrics, August 2007.