Opium addiction and severity of coronary artery disease: a case-control study

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. Determination of the risk factors and high risk groups plays an important role in the prevention and controlling programs. The present study aims to determine the relationship between opium consumption and severity of CAD.

In this hospital based case-control study, 299 patients who were candidates for coronary angiography from 2006 to 2007 were recruited. The patients' history of opium addiction was taken. Based on their history, they were categorized into three groups: non users, occasional users and current users. The relationship between opium addiction and severity of CAD was analyzed by a multiple logistic regression model, STATA v.10.

According to angiographic data, patients were divided into 3 groups: 84 patients (28.09%) as non coronary artery disease, 81 patients (27.09%) as mild CAD and the remaining 134 patients (44.82%) as severe CAD. Univariate analysis showed that current opium users had higher odds of severe CAD compared with non users. Multivariate analysis showed a significant relationship between age, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, gender and severity of coronary artery stenosis.

The findings indicated that current opium users - in comparison with non users - have a higher risk for severe CAD. But it is roughly confounded by other co-factors such as cigarette smoking, age and sex. A dose-response was noticed between the type of opium consumption and the severity of CAD.