Association of Environmental Toxic Elements in Biological Samples of Myocardial Infarction Patients at Different Stages

Abstract

The exposure of toxic elements may directly or indirectly associate with different pathogenesis of heart diseases. In the present study, the association of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), lead (Pb), and nickel (Ni) in biological samples (whole blood and urine) and mortality from myocardial infarction (MI) patients at first, second, and third heart attacks was carried out. Both biological samples of 130 MI patients (77 male and 53 female), with ages ranging from 45 to 60 years, and 61 healthy persons (33 male and 28 female) of the same age group were collected. The elements in biological samples were assessed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrophotometer, prior to microwave-assisted acid digestion. The validity of methodology was checked by the biological certified reference materials. During this study, 78% of 32 patients aged above 50 years, registered after third MI attack, died. In these subjects, the levels of As, Cd, Co, Ni, and Pb in blood samples were higher in MI patients as compared with referents (p < 0.05), while increased by 11.7%, 12.2%, 5.55%, and 7.2%, respectively, in the blood samples of those patients who tolerated the third MI attack (p = 0.12). The high level of understudied toxic elements may play a role in the mortality of MI patients.

Association Between Exposure to Low to Moderate Arsenic Levels and Incident Cardiovascular Disease

“…In our study, we found stronger associations among never smokers, contrary to a stronger association among current smokers in a prospective cohort study in Bangladesh (6). The susceptibility to arsenic toxicity may also differ by sex (59), although previous studies of arsenic and cardiovascular disease found no marked differences by sex (2, 10, 35, 40, 45). We found a stronger association among women, although arsenic was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in both men and women.…”

“…High arsenic levels in drinking water (>100μg/L) increased the risk of peripheral artery disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, and carotid atherosclerosis in studies conducted in Taiwan (2-4), Bangladesh (5, 6), Chile (7), Inner Mongolia (8, 9), and Pakistan (10, 11). Less is known about the cardiovascular effects of low to moderate arsenic levels (<100μg/L in drinking water) that affect most populations around the world due to a lack of prospective studies, limitations in exposure and outcome assessment, and inadequate information on cardiovascular risk factors (12, 13).…”

Particulate Matter From Saudi Arabia Induces Genes Involved in Inflammation, Metabolic Syndrome and Atherosclerosis

“…Also, nickel (Ni) and vanadium (V) are higher in the PM sample than some of the other metals probably due to the large amount of fossil fuel combustion in the area. Ni and V are common components in many particulate matter samples and studies investigating the effects of PM containing Ni and V have observed CVD endpoints (Afridi et al 2011; Zhang et al 2009). (Lippmann et al 2006) exposed ApoE −/− mice to PM containing high concentrations of Ni.…”

Arsenic Exposure and Cardiovascular Disease:An Updated Systematic Review

“…For studies with multiple exposure categories, we selected the comparison of the highest to the lowest exposure category. In two studies that reported only mean arsenic levels among cases and non-cases [35, 39, 40], we used the linear discriminant function method [45] to estimate the odds ratios associated with a unit increase in arsenic exposure. For these two studies, and for one study that reported the odds ratio per unit change in arsenic [41], we estimated the odds ratio associated with the difference between the 75 th and the 25 th percentiles of the arsenic distribution among non-cases, using the mean and standard deviation of arsenic levels reported in non-cases and assuming a standard normal distribution.…”

“…For studies that presented results for both urine and water arsenic, we used urine arsenic for the pooled analysis and dose-response analysis [8, 25, 28••]. Similarly, for a study that reported results for both urine and hair arsenic, we used urine arsenic [39, 40]. …”