04 | 14 | 2008 Posted By Regan Zambri & Long

Heart Attack Symptoms for Young Patient? Physician Should Ask About Possible Cocaine Exposure: New Study

Physicians treating chest pain in patients who are young, or in those who have no obvious risk factors for heart disease, should ask those patients about their potential cocaine use.  The advice is a key recommendation by the American Heart Association (AHA), recently published in the medical journal Circulation. 

In these particular cases, experts advise that it’s essential to rule out cocaine use because exposure to the drug could affect what is the most safe and effective treatment.  Two common heart attack treatments — clot-busting drugs and beta-blockers — can be dangerous for patients who have been using cocaine.  Further, experts believe that people between the ages of 35 and 44 years of age account for 37% of all cocaine-related visits to hospital emergency rooms.

Research has shown that chest pain related to cocaine use tends to show up within 3 hours of use, although residual cocaine can remain in the system for 18 hours and can continue to cause problems the entire time.

In patients who do have a coronary artery blockage, bare metal or drug-eluting stents are routinely inserted to restore blood flow in many patients.  Authors of the AHA statement also advise that patients with a long history of cocaine use are likely to be non-compliant in taking medication to keep drug-eluting stents from becoming blocked, so in their cases, bare metal stents may be preferable as a treatment for cardiac blockages.

Experts also note that most cocaine-associated chest pain is not a heart attack, and thus, these patients should be initially monitored in an observation unit for 9 to 12 hours.

Previously on the DC Metro Area Medical Malpractice Law Blog, we have posted articles related to:

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