COCAINE USE RAISES HEART ATTACK RISK

Taking cocaine can cause the walls of arteries in the heart to balloon and
cause a heart attack, a study showed yesterday. The condition, called an
aneurysm, was found in 30% of 112 individuals who admitted using the drug.

Aaron Satran, from Hennepin county medical centre in Minneapolis, said:
"This is an extremely high percentage compared with the overall number of
coronary aneurysms seen among patients referred for angiography" - a method
of scanning blood vessels with x-rays.

The average age of patients taking part in the study was 44, and 80% were
male.

A large investigation, the coronary artery surgery study, had previously
found that less than 5% of 20,000 patients who underwent angiographs had an
aneurysm in a heart artery.

Aneurysms in the heart may lead to heart attacks, while those that occur in
brain arteries can burst and cause a stroke.

The research was reported yesterday at the American Heart Association's
annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.