Heavy cocaine users may be unaware how much damage the drug is doing to their heart because they may not experience any symptoms, the results of a new study indicate.
According to Italian researchers, autopsy findings show that myocarditis - inflammation of the heart muscle - is present in around 20% of cocaine addicts.
Furthermore, it is thought that around one in four non-fatal heart attacks among people under the age of 45 is associated with cocaine.
Myocarditis often causes chest pain and heart failure. It can prompt fatal and non-fatal heart attacks, but without the blocked/narrowed arteries typical of ischaemic heart disease.
Source: Deborah Condon, irishhealth.com, 21/06/2011
Posted by Andy on 06/21 at 06:44 AM in
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