Increased Particulate Air Pollution and the Triggering of Myocardial Infarction

By A. Peters, D. Dockery, J. Muller, M. Mittleman. Circulation, 2001

1,549 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background—Elevated concentrations of ambient particulate air pollution have been associated with increased hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease. Whether high concentrations of ambient particles can trigger the onset of acute myocardial infarction (MI), however, remains unknown. Methods and Results—We interviewed 772 patients with MI in the greater Boston area between January 1995 and May 1996 as part of the Determinants of Myocardial Infarction Onset Study. Hourly concentrations of particle mass <2.5 &mgr;m (PM2.5), carbon black, and gaseous air pollutants were measured. A case-crossover approach was used to analyze the data for evidence of triggering. The risk of MI onset increased in association with elevated concentrations of fine particles in the previous 2-hour period. In addition, a delayed response associated with 24-hour average exposure 1 day before the onset of symptoms was observed. Multivariate analyses considering both time windows jointly revealed an estimated odds ratio of 1.48 associated with an increase of 25 &mgr;g/m3 PM2.5 during a 2-hour period before the onset and an odds ratio of 1.69 for an increase of 20 &mgr;g/m3 PM2.5 in the 24-hour period 1 day before the onset (95% CIs 1.09, 2.02 and 1.13, 2.34, respectively). Conclusions—The present study suggests that elevated concentrations of fine particles in the air may transiently elevate the risk of MIs within a few hours and 1 day after exposure. Further studies in other locations are needed to clarify the importance of this potentially preventable trigger of MI.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fb88c6a7949174820fd320bcca41cd5c55c1be6c

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Global and Planetary Change

1. W. R. Walker
2. M. Lodovici
3. W. Schlenker
4. E. Bigagli
5. M. Auffhammer
6. David B. Lobell
7. Andrew Crane-Droesch

In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

1. Ralph J. Delfino
2. Ken Donaldson
3. M. Lodovici
4. W. R. Walker
5. Shaista Malik
6. E. Bigagli
7. C. Sioutas

Citations in the corpus

• Diesel Exhaust Inhalation Causes Vascular Dysfunction and Impaired Endogenous Fibrinolysis (2005, result): “5.(1) Our studies add to those of Brook et al,24 who demonstrated a reduction in brachial artery diameter immediately after exposure to a mixture of concentrated ambient particles and ozone.”
• Potential Role of Ultrafine Particles in Associations between Airborne Particle Mass and Cardiovascular Health (2005, background): “The NMMAPS study found that PM10 associations with mortality were largely independent of NO2, SO2, and O3 (Samet et al. 2000a).”
• Oxidative Stress and Air Pollution Exposure (2011, background): “[12] A.”
• Cardiovascular effects of air pollution (2017, background): “Short-term exposure—A short-term increase in air pollution has been shown to be capable of triggering acute coronary syndromes [18], and the strongest associations were observed with concurrent-day or last 2 days’ mean air pollutant exposure [19].”
• Adverse cardiovascular effects of air pollution (2009, background): “Even brief exposures to air pollution have been associated with marked increases in cardiovascular-related morbidity and deaths from myocardial ischemia, arrhythmia, and heart failure”