Diabetics' Hearts Suffer
More When Air Is Poor

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Diabetics who also have heart disease may want to pay extra attention to air pollution warnings, researchers report.

Diabetics with heart disease were twice as likely to be hospitalized compared to patients without diabetes when levels of particulates in the air were high, according to research published in the September issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Particulates include dust, soot and other tiny bits of solid materials that are released into and move around in the air.

Drs. Antonella Zanobetti and Joel Schwartz of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, wrote, ``We have found a significant interaction for hospital admissions for heart disease, with more than twice the risk in persons with diabetes than in persons without diabetes.''

In the study, the two researchers evaluated hospital records from Cook County, Illinois between 1988 and 1994. Specifically, they compared hospital admission information to daily levels of particulates in the air. Cook County monitored the level of particulates in the air on a daily basis during the study period.

Particulate matter--tiny particles that are largely the byproduct of combustion at power plants and in car engines--are a health concern because they can penetrate into the sensitive regions of the respiratory tract. Fine particles are of greatest concern because they are linked to the most serious effects, including persistent coughs, phlegm production, wheezing and physical discomfort, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The levels of particulates that were measured during the study period and shown to be correlated with adverse health were ``well below'' 100 parts per million, Schwartz told Reuters Health. The EPA allows for levels of up to 150 parts per million for such particles.

Previous research has suggested heavy-pollution days take a toll on the heart, increasing not only heart attack risk, but also sending up blood pressure, accelerating heart rate and causing problems with implanted heart defibrillators.

Experts speculate that when fine particles are deposited in the lungs, this sets off an inflammatory response that may make blood flow more sluggish and prone to clotting. In people with artery-clogging plaques, such cardiovascular stress may trigger a heart attack.

SOURCE: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

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