title: Smoking effect on ischemic heart disease in young patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of tobacco smoking on the risk of nonfatal acute myocardial infarction in young adults (≤45 years).
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a population-based case-control study with 329 incident acute myocardial infarction cases (42 women; 287 men), consecutively admitted to the Cardiology department of hospitals in Aleppo, Syria, and 778 controls (486 women; 292 men), selected within the noninstitutionalized Aleppo population, during 2008-2010. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated using unconditional logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of current smoking was 80.8% in male cases and 53.8% in male controls (OR = 3.63, 95%CI: 2.50, 5.27) and 59.5% of female cases were smokers compared with 35.8% of controls (OR = 2.64, 95%CI: 1.39, 5.02). No interaction was found between current smoking and gender on myocardial infarction risk (P = 0.401). A dose-effect response was present, the odds favoring myocardial infarction reaching an eight-fold increase for those who smoked >25 cigarettes/day compared with never smokers. The risk estimate for former smokers was similar to never smokers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tobacco smoking is an important independent risk factor for acute myocardial infarction in young adults, with similar strength of association for both genders.
authors: Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Aleppo University, Aleppo University Heart Hospital, Syria.
authors: Khaled
authors: K
authors: Hbejan