Heart attacks which take place in the morning hours are of a more serious nature than attacks that occur at any other time of the day.
Spanish researchers studied data of 811 patients who suffered a myocardial infarction during 2003 to 2009. They used blood enzyme levels for measuring the infract (extent of the dead tissue), which is caused due to the blood supply to the heart muscle being cut off.
269 of the 811 cardiac patients suffered an attack in the morning between 6:00 a.m. & noon, during the changeover from darkness to light, and had a 21% larger infarct than patients whose attack happened between 6:00 p.m. & midnight.
The study supports previous evidence that the circadian rhythm, i.e. the body clock, affects the heart in several ways like heart rate, blood pressure, cardiac output & functioning of cells lining the cardiac blood vessels.
The findings can be of help in determining how effective drugs are against heart disease.
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This is really interesting. Do you happen to have the name of the Spanish study that you reference? I’d love to take a look at it.
Dear Will,
Researchers at the National Centre of Cardiovascular Research in Madrid, Spain studied data of patients admitted to the coronary care unit of Hospital Clinico San Carlos in Madrid. The research is published ahead of print in Heart journal.
Shil