Association of Opium Consumption and Coronary Artery Ectasia: A Propensity Score-Matched Study

Opium consumption is associated with increased risk of atherosclerosis and a hyper-inflammatory state which are suggested as contributing factors to the development of coronary artery ectasia (CAE). We aimed to determine if opium consumption is an independent risk factor of CAE. This study aimed to explore the relationship between opium consumption and CAE.

In this propensity score-matched study, we enrolled patients who underwent elective coronary angiography between September 2004 and March 2017 in Tehran Heart Center. We studied patients with CAE and without coronary artery disease (CAD) as cases. The control group, patients with normal coronary angiograms, were selected after applying the propensity score matching to match for age, sex, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, family history of coronary artery disease, and cigarette smoking.

We studied 242 patients with pure CAE and selected 968 control patients. The prevalence of opium consumption was not significantly different across these groups: 17 (7.5%) in the pure CAE group compared to 76 (8.6%) in the control group (Odds ratio: 0.81; P=0.455). Amongst the patients with pure CAE, Markis scores were not significantly different between opium consumers and non-consumers (P=0.136).

We found no significant difference regarding opium consumption between patients with pure CAE and those with normal coronary angiograms. In addition, there was no correlation between opium consumption and Markis scores in patients with pure CAE.