Smoking ‘powerfully’ raises risk for STEMI in women under 50
But the effect seems to be rapidly reversible, says researcher
Women smokers aged under 50 are 13 times more likely to experience ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) than their non-smoker peers, a UK study shows.
This makes them the group whose STEMI risk increases most when becoming a smoker, but their risks can be reduced within a month of quitting, according to results published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The researchers compared hospital data on 3343 STEMI patients attending the South Yorkshire Cardiothoracic Centre between 2009 and 2014 with government statistics for the general population served by the centre.
Peak STEMI rate for current smokers was in the 70-79-year range for women (235 per 100,000 patient-years) and 50-59 in men (425 per 100,000 patient-years).
