COCAINE USE INCREASES RISK OF HEART ATTACKS

Cocaine increases the risk of heart attack by 24 times during the hour after
using it, an American study has found.

In the first large study of the long-suspected link between cocaine and
heart disease, reported today in the journal Circulation, scientists looked
at the records of 64 US medical centres from 1989 to 1996.

They also interviewed 2,664 men and 1,282 women, aged 20 to 92, who had had
non-fatal heart attacks. Thirty-eight reported cocaine use in the year
before the attack, and nine took the drug fewer than 60 minutes before the
attack.

"The average age of people in the study who suffered heart attacks soon
after using cocaine was only 44," said Murray Mittleman of the Beth Israel
Deaconess medical centre in Boston, who headed the study. "That's about 17
years younger than the average. Of the 38 users, 29 had no prior symptoms of
heart disease."

Users are more likely to be male and to smoke, which is linked to heart
disease, but the study allowed for these factors. In the US, it is thought
that 30 million have tried cocaine and 5 million use it regularly.