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

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CAD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. So, determination of the risk factors and high risk groups plays an important role in the prevention and controlling programs. The aim of present study was determine the relationship between the opium consumption and the severity of CAD. Methods: In this hospital based case-control study, we recruited 299 patients candidate for coronary angiography from 2006 to 2007.The history of opium addiction was asked in all subjects. According to the duration of opium consumption, we categorized the individuals into three groups, non-users, occasional users and currently-users .The relationship between opium addiction and severity of CAD was analyzed using logistic regression model. Results: we analyzed the data of 299 cases, which included 84 (28.09%) as the control group, 81 (27.09%) as non-significant and monovessel CAD and the remaining 134 (44.82%) as multivessel CAD group. Univariat analysis showed that currently users had a higher odds of severity CAD in compare to control group with OR=2.06 (CI95% 1.22-3.49, P=0.007). Multivariate analysis showed a significant relationship between age, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, male gender and severity of coronary artery stenosis. Currently users had a higher odds of severity CAD in compare to the control group with the adjusted OR 1.82 (CI95% 0.93 – 3.58, P=0.08), but anymore wasn’t significant Conclusion: The findings indicated that currently opium users – in compare to non-users - have a higher risk for severe CAD .But it is roughly confounded by other co-factors such as cigar smoking, age and sex. We have seen a dose-response between the type of opium consumption and the severity of CAD, but the relationship was not significant.