Q J Med 2000; 93: 197-198
© 2000 Association of Physicians
Correspondence |
Seasonal variation in CHD
Department of Medicine, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA
Sir,
That there is a seasonal variation in the manifestations of coronary artery disease as recently reported in the QJM1,2—a winter peak and summer trough in morbidity and mortality—is a universal phenomenon. The same findings have been reported from mainland China3 and Taiwan.4
The investigators from the Guangzhou Municipal Cardiovascular Co-operative Group5 analysed 943 patients with acute myocardial infarction admitted between 1976 and 1980 to 18 hospitals in Guangzhou, which is better known to the outside world as Canton.6 They found the peak incidence to be in the winter months—January, February, April and October—and the lowest incidence in August when typhoons were most frequent. Using regression analysis, they also found the incidence of acute myocardial infarcion to increase under low humidity.
Therefore there is a definite meteorological influence on the incidence of acute myocardial infarction. But there is more to the meteorological parameters than just the ambient temperature. For example, Ruhenstroth-Bauer et al.7 from Germany found a significant positive correlation between the onset of acute myocardial infarction and 28 kHz atmospherics. Ku et al.8 from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, reported absence of a seasonal variation in myocardial infarction in a region without temperature extremes.
References
1.
Pell JP, Cobbe SM. Seasonal variations in coronary heart disease. Q J Med 1999; 92:689–96.
2.
De Lorenzo F, Sharma V, Scully M, Kakkar VV. Cold adaptation and the seasonal distribution of acute myocardial infarction. Q J Med 1999; 92:747–51.
3. Cheng TO. Seasonal incidence of acute myocardial infarction in the Chinese population. Cardiology 1998; 90:312.[Medline]
4. Yeh CJ, Chan P, Pan WH. Values of blood coagulating factors vary with ambient temperature: the Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factor Two-Township Study in Taiwan. Chin J Physiol 1996; 39:111–16.[Medline]
5. Guangzhou Municipal Cardiovascular Cooperative Group. A preliminary analysis on the relationship of the incidence of acute myocardial infarction to the meteorological factors in Guangzhou city. Chin J Intern Med 1984; 23:548–50.
6. Cheng TO. Myocardial infarction and the weather: A significant positive correlation between the onset of heart infarct and 28 KHz atmospherics—a pilot study. Clin Cardiol 1985; 8:510.[Medline]
7. Ruhenstroth-Bauer G, Baumer H, Burkel EM, Sönning W, Filipiak B. Myocardial infarction and the weather: A significant positive correlation between the onset of heart infarct and 28 KHz atmospherics—a pilot study. Clin Cardiol 1985; 8:149–51.[Medline]
8. Ku C-S, Yang C-Y, Lee W-J, Chiang H-T, Liu C-P, Lin S-L. Absence of a seasonal variation in myocardial infarction onset in a region without temperature extremes. Cardiology 1998; 89:277–82.[Web of Science][Medline]
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