Occlusive coronary artery disease and parental history of myocardial infarction

Abstract

The extent of coronary occlusive disease as determined by arteriography was correlated with parental history of MI in this study of 1671 male and 520 female heart patients. In both male and female patients having no or minimal occlusive disease, a significantly lower proportion was found to have parental history of MI than did those with more extensive disease. Parental history of MI was included in a multiple linear regression model along with age, plasma cholesterol, plasma triglycerides, obesity, hypertension, hyperglycemia, cigarette smoking, and alcohol intake as independent variables and the extent of occlusive disease was used as the dependent variable. This analysis indicated that parental MI history had a significant association with occlusive disease that cannot be accounted for by elevations of the other risk factors. Certain risk factors (i.e., cholesterol, triglycerides, smoking, and diabetes) were found to be highly correlated to the severity of coronary occlusion. For patients with lower levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, smoking, and diabetes, significantly greater occlusion was observed in patients with a parental MI history compared with those who did not. For patients with higher levels of these risk factors, the association between parental history of MI and degree of occlusion was minimal. The results suggest that parental history of MI may play a direct causal role in the pathogenesis of coronary occlusive disease.