Aim: Aim of this study was to analyse association of smoking cessation influence on long-term clinical outcomes in patients with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS).
Introduction: Smoking and obesity are important cardiovascular risk factors. Patients often put on weight after quitting smoking.
Methods: 137 consecutive ACS patients of the Department of Coronary Heart Disease John Paul II Hospital in Cracow admitted between 2011 and 2013 were enrolled in the study. They had no previous history of Coronary Heart Disease and underwent Percutaneous Coronary Intervention with implantation of at least one Drug Eluting Stent. Telephone follow-up was carried out after a minimum time of 3 years. Patients were divided into 2 groups: patients who stopped smoking (91) and non-smokers (46) which were compared according to weight gain, increased of the BMI, morbidity of diabetes mellitus (DM), reasons of admission to hospital, occurrence of another ACS, stroke and neoplasm.
Results: The population consisted of 66% males, 34% females mean age 67 SD 11.29. Patients who used to smoke were significantly younger than non-smokers (64.,99 vs. 71.37; P=0.048). Both groups did not statistically differ in terms of gender and frequency of DM. The ex-smokers were admitted more frequently due to STEMI while in the non-smokers NSTEMI and Unstable Angina predominated. The weight and BMI in both groups did not differ on the date of ACS. However after 3 years there was a statistically significant difference: ex-smokers put on weight on average 1.3kg while non-smokers lost 2.17kg (p=0.01). There was no association between the patients’ history of smoking and occurrence of stroke, malignancy or another ACS.
Conclusion: Smoking cessation does not appear to influence long-term clinical outcomes after ACS. However it associates with weight gain which obviously increases cardiovascular risk. Our findings need further investigation and follow-up in a larger cohort of ACS patients.