Asthmatics Prone to Heart Disease
By DANIEL Q. HANEY
.c The Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO (March 3) - Asthma sufferers appear to be unusually
prone to
heart disease, a study found, offering new clues about the hazards
of
lingering inflammation.
Other research has linked asthma with heart trouble, but those
studies did
not clearly distinguish the effect of smoking, which contributes
to both
asthma and cardiovascular disease.
In the new study, doctors from the Kaiser Permanente health
plan found that
even nonsmokers have a clearly elevated risk of heart disease.
It appears to
be at least one-third higher than the risk in people without asthma.
The reason for this is unclear. The researchers speculate that
asthmatics'
chronic lung inflammation might damage their arteries over time.
However,
they said it is also possible that medicines used to treat asthma
have ill
effects on the heart.
``This is a beginning,'' said Dr. Carlos Iribarren, the lead
author. ``It's a
provocative finding that we need to understand.''
Iribarren presented the findings Friday at a meeting in San
Antonio of the
American Heart Association.
The researchers reviewed questionnaires filled out by 22,036
nonsmoking
Kaiser patients between 1979 and 1985 and followed their health
through 1998.
Among them were 1,062 men and women who said they had been diagnosed
with
asthma at some time in their lives.
Those who ever had asthma were 32 percent more likely than
those without to
be hospitalized with heart disease or die from it during the follow-up.
People actually being treated for asthma at the study's start
had an even
higher risk. Twelve percent of them developed heart disease by
the end of the
study, compared with 7 percent of those without asthma - an increased
risk of
more than 70 percent.
About 6 percent of Americans are thought to have asthma. Iribarren
said these
people should be especially careful to eat a healthy diet, keep
their weight
under control and watch their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
``The universal recommendations for heart disease prevention
apply to these
people, because they may be at increased risk,'' he said.
Some experts believe that chronic inflammation may increase
the risk of heart
disease. Much of the attention in this research has focused on
bacterial
causes, such as lingering gum disease or sinus infections.
Earlier this week in the journal Circulation, European doctors
reported that
people with a variety of chronic bacterial infections have triple
the usual
risk of developing hardening of the arteries.
Asthma's inflammation results from an allergic reaction. Iribarren
said his
works raises the possibility that it, too, might be bad for the
heart,
possibly by subjecting the arteries to inflammation-related chemicals
and
white cells that circulate throughout the body.
The latest study is ``another piece of the puzzle of how inflammation
influences the development of heart disease,'' said Dr. Sidney
C. Smith Jr.,
research director of the heart association. ``It seems to be playing
an
important role.''
Among other reports at the conference:
Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston
found that
smoking may trigger heart attacks by making the blood stickier.
Heart attacks
occur when clots block heart arteries. The researchers found that
victims who
had just smoked had bigger clots than did smokers who had not
a cigarette
within six hours.
AP-NY-03-03-01 0057EST
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