BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES :
Myocardial infarction is one of the commonest cause of death in the developing and developed countries. Indians are more prone to coronary artery disease but conventional risk factors do not explain the high rates of Coronary Artery
Disease among Indians. Myocardial infarction is claiming a large number of lives in India. An impressive difference was absence of traditional risk factors in a third
of them. Novel risk factors like homocysteine, lipoprotein (a), small LDL particle and
fibrinogen may play a significant role in these patients. The aim of this study is to
estimate fibrinogen levels in myocardial infarction patients and to study association
of these novel risk factors with conventional risk factors.
METHODOLOGY ;
The present study included 70 patients who were admitted to IMCU and ICCU of Thanjavur Medical College Hospital during the period of Oct 2011–Nov 2012 fulfilling WHO criteria for acute myocardial infarction, presenting within 48 hours. Traditional risk factors were studied in addition to studying plasma fibrinogen levels.
RESULTS :
This study was predominantly male oriented 49(80%). Mean age of the patients was 52.26 years. Chest pain was the most common presenting symptom present in all the patients followed by sweating 10 (14.3%). Dyslipidemia was the most
common 42 (60.9 %) risk factor in the present study followed by smoking 39 (55.7 %). High mean plasma fibrinogen (440.61 ± 75.4 mg/dl) levels was noted among patients.
Significant association was noted between plasma fibrinogen and risk factors like dyslipidemia, obesity, diabetes and smoking. High plasma fibrinogen was observed in
patients with chronic alcoholism, but not statistically significant.
INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSION :
In addition to the conventional risk factors of myocardial infarction, a high plasma
fibrinogen levels were noted in patients with acute Myocardial infarction.
However, larger studies need to be done to substantiate these findings
