Acute coronary syndrome in young patients: clinical features and risk factors

Aim. To study the clinical features and risk factors (RF) associated with the development of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in young patients. Material and methods . The study included 474 patients with ACS. Depending on age, patients were divided into 2 groups. The first group consisted of 299 patients of young age (25-44 years), the comparison group consisted of 175 patients of mean and old age (45-74 years). Clinical and anamnestic data, parameters of general clinical and biochemical tests, electrocardiography, echocardiography and coronary angiography were determined in all patients, and polymorphisms in FII G20210-A, FV G1691-A, MTHFR C677-T genes were determined in 116 patients. The control group consisted of 53 healthy volunteers. Results. ACS in patients <45 years old is most common in men. The number of women with ACS increases as elder patient is. The incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) and unstable angina, ST-elevated MI and non ST-segment elevation MI, Q-wave and non-Q-wave MI had no differences between patients of the younger and older age groups. In younger patients, anterior localization of myocardial infarction was more common, in mean and old patients — posterior. Complications of MI in young patients were less common than in the comparison group. In patients of mean and old ages, acute coronary event was preceded by a clinic of angina, in young patients most often it was the debut of coronary artery disease. It was revealed that single-vessel coronary lesion is more characteristic for young patients, for the elderly patients — two-vessel and multi-vessel. Pathology of the anterior descending coronary artery prevailed in both groups of patients. Most patients in both groups underwent myocardial revascularization. MI as a result of coronary artery thrombosis happened more often in young patients. The most significant RF associated with the ACS development were: increased total cholesterol and low density lipoproteins, decreased high density lipoproteins, increased body mass index, smoking, polymorphism of MTHFR-homozygote, hereditary tainted with smoking, aggravation in combination with F5-homozygote, hereditary tainted in combination with MTHFR-homozygote, hereditary tainted in combination with smoking and MTHFR homozygote. Conclusion. We identified clinical features and RF, mostly associated with the development of ACS in patients <45 years of age. The results can serve as additional indicators showed the risk of ACS development.