Shoot1st, "Carbon Monoxide Poisoning May Damage Heart"
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer
Tue Jan 24, 8:22 PM ET
Carbon monoxide poisoning frequently causes symptomless heart damage that appears to shorten patients' lives even if they make it out of the hospital OK, a study found.
All 230 patients studied had poisoning similar to that suffered by the sole survivor of the Jan. 2 West Virginia mine explosion, although most were exposed to the toxic gas from faulty furnaces or fires, not mining disasters.
Overall, 37 percent had heart muscle damage caused by carbon monoxide exposure, including six of 12 patients who died in the hospital, the researchers said. Nearly 40 percent of the heart damage patients died within about seven years. By contrast, 15 percent of the patients without heart damage died during the follow-up period.
The heart damage often caused no initial symptoms. It was detected by hospital tests.
Those tests — including an electrocardiogram and a blood test to detect elevated levels of a protein called troponin — are not routinely given to all carbon monoxide patients, but they should be, based on the study's findings, said lead author Dr. Timothy Henry, research director at the Minnesota Heart Institute Foundation.
The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
. . .
The study fits with data suggesting that air pollution, which often contains carbon monoxide, can raise the risk of a heart attack, said Aruni Bhatnagar, a researcher at the University of Louisville's school of medicine.
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JAMA: jama.ama-assn.org
Carbon monoxide information: cdc.gov |
