Impact of Conventional Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Acute Myocardial Infarction in Young Adult Taiwanese

Background: The impact of conventional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) defined by the universal definition published in 2007 hasn't been evaluated in young population in Taiwan according to the comparison of their prevalence between young AMI patients and age- and sex-matched contemporary controls. Methods: AMI patients, aged between 18 and 44 and admitted to the First CV Division, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan from Mar. 2005 to Dec. 2008, were included. Age- and sex-matched controls who had no evidence of ischemic heart disease were randomly selected with a control/patient ratio of 2:1 from the database of the Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan, 2005-2008. Prevalence of cigarette smoking, diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HTN), dyslipidemia and obesity, as well as values of lipid profiles and body mass index (BMI) were compared between the two groups. Results: Totally 65 male and 5 female young AMI patients were analyzed. The young AMI group had significantly higher prevalence of cigarette smoking, DM, HTN and obesity. Young AMI patients also had significantly higher mean levels of BMI, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol and triglyceride, and significantly lower mean level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Multivariate analysis showed that HTN, DM, low HDL-C and cigarette smoking were independent predictors of AMI in young people. Conclusion: HTN, DM, low HDL-C and cigarette smoking are independent risk factors of AMI in young adult Taiwanese. Among these risk factors, cigarette smoking is the most prevalent, while HTN is the most powerful.