Developments in Brief : Cocaine Use Found to Trigger Heart Attacks

Also at the heart association meeting, a Boston physician warned that regular use of cocaine, even in moderate amounts, can trigger sudden heart attacks.

Jeffrey Isner of Tufts University said that, although only a small proportion of cocaine users will die of cardiac problems, there is no way of predicting who they will be.

His analysis included nearly 30 documented cases of cardiac problems after cocaine use by apparently healthy individuals, including University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, who died last June 19 after ingesting cocaine.

All the cases involved “relatively small doses of cocaine,” and most users snorted it instead of injecting or smoking it. “They don’t have to be chronic users,” Isner said. “They can be first-time users.”

He said that, although the physiological causes of these sudden attacks are not yet known, “it is likely that cocaine was able to induce coronary artery spasms . . . leading to the development of clots” and ultimately triggering acute myocardial infarction.

This hypothesis is borne out by the fact that “the majority of cases involved individuals with normal coronary arteries,” Isner said.