Abstract
The effects of cold air on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases were investigated in an experimental study examining blood pressure and biochemical indicators. Zhangye, a city in Gansu Province, China, was selected as the experimental site. Health screening and blood tests were conducted, and finally, 30 cardiovascular disease patients and 40 healthy subjects were recruited. The experiment was performed during a cold event during 27–28 April 2013. Blood pressure, catecholamine, angiotensin II (ANG-II), cardiac troponin I (cTnI), muscle myoglobin (Mb) and endothefin-1 (ET-1) levels of the subjects were evaluated 1 day before, during the 2nd day of the cold exposure and 1 day after the cold air exposure. Our results suggest that cold air exposure increases blood pressure in cardiovascular disease patients and healthy subjects via the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) that is activated first and which augments ANG-II levels accelerating the release of the norepinephrine and stimulates the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). The combined effect of these factors leads to a rise in blood pressure. In addition, cold air exposure can cause significant metabolism and secretion of Mb, cTnI and ET-1 in subjects; taking the patient group as an example, ET-1 was 202.7 ng/L during the cold air exposure, increased 58 ng/L compared with before the cold air exposure, Mb and cTnI levels remained relatively high (2,219.5 ng/L and 613.2 ng/L, increased 642.1 ng/L and 306.5 ng/L compared with before the cold air exposure, respectively) 1-day after the cold exposure. This showed that cold air can cause damage to patients’ heart cells, and the damage cannot be rapidly repaired. Some of the responses related to the biochemical markers indicated that cold exposure increased cardiovascular strain and possible myocardial injury.
Highlights
With the worldwide concern and study of cardiovascular disease caused by low temperatures, cold air exposure has been acknowledged as an important weather risk factor, which affects the increase in morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular disease [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
Compared with Mb levels before cold air exposure, it respectively elevated by 124.5 ng/L and 644.1 ng/L in during and after cold air exposure in the patient groups while it respectively elevated by 163.2 ng/L and 768.3 ng/L
There is no significant difference in Mb levels during the same period of cold air exposure in both the patient and control groups
Summary
With the worldwide concern and study of cardiovascular disease caused by low temperatures, cold air exposure has been acknowledged as an important weather risk factor, which affects the increase in morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular disease [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. A study by the World Health Organization showed that incidence of hypertensive disorders and related cardiovascular diseases in colder northern. Cold weather can aggravate hypertension disease, and increase the incidence of hypertension-associated cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and myocardial infarction [3,14,15]. Cold air of moderate intensity in Zhangye City of Gansu Province in northern China was used as the experimental example to study
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