Small Doses of Cocaine Linked to Heart Attacks
Small, “recreational” doses of cocaine appear to trigger dangerous and potentially fatal heart disturbances in seemingly healthy users of the illicit drug, a new study indicates.
In today’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Jeffrey M. Isner of New England Medical Center in Boston describes seven cases in which people in their 20s and 30s suffered heart attacks and other cardiac problems after using cocaine.
“The thing that is to me so impressive is that virtually all of the patients that we and others have described involved relatively small doses of cocaine, so-called recreational doses,” Isner said. “That’s one of the lessons to be learned from this. It appears that any recreational dose can be fatal.”
Worse Than Heroin
In a separate overview of cocaine’s medical complications, two doctors said animal studies suggest that cocaine may be more harmful than heroin.
“Cocaine is becoming widely recognized as one of the most dangerous illicit drugs in common use today,” wrote Drs. Louis L. Cregler and Herbert Mark of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
Isner said more cases have recently come to light, especially since the cocaine-related death last June of basketball player Len Bias. Among these are several instances of cardiac inflammation.
Affects Clogged Arteries
“I’m convinced this inflammation of the heart represents another one of the potential cardiac consequences of cocaine abuse,” he said.
Besides causing inflammation, there appear to be other ways that cocaine can damage the heart. Isner said the best-documented are heart attacks in people who already have clogged coronary arteries.
Cocaine raises blood pressure and increases heart rate, he said. In people who already have coronary artery disease, this can trigger blockages that cut off the flow of blood to heart muscle.
However, people with healthy heart arteries also suffer heart attacks after cocaine use. Isner speculates that the drug causes spasms in the arteries, choking off blood flow.
