According to a new study by researchers at St. Luke’s University Health Network, active cannabis use may double the risk of stress cardiomyopathy, a sudden, usually temporary, weakening of the heart muscle that reduces the heart’s ability to pump, leading to chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness and sometimes fainting.
Singh et al found that marijuana users were almost twice as likely to develop stress cardiomyopathy compared to non-users. Image credit: Tabeajaichhalt.
“The effects of marijuana, especially on the cardiovascular system, are not well known yet,” said study co-author Dr. Amitoj Singh, a chief cardiology fellow at St. Luke’s University Health Network.
“With its increasing availability and legalization in some states, people need to know that marijuana may be harmful to the heart and blood vessels in some people.”
“We aimed to examine trends in hospital admissions and outcomes of adults with transient ventricular regional ballooning (TRVB) in temporal relation to marijuana use,” the authors said.
“Search of 2003-2011 Nationwide Inpatient Sample database identified 33,343 admissions for TRVB of which 210 (0.06%) were temporally related to active marijuana use.”
Compared with non-users, Dr. Singh and co-authors found that marijuana users were more likely to be younger, male with fewer cardiovascular risk factors, including less high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.
However, despite being younger and with fewer cardiovascular risk factors than non-users, during stress cardiomyopathy the marijuana users were significantly more likely to go into cardiac arrest (2.4% vs. 0.8%) and to require an implanted defibrillator to detect and correct dangerously abnormal heart rhythms (2.4% vs. 0.6%).
“This development of stress cardiomyopathy in younger patients who used marijuana suggests a possible link that needs to be further investigated,” said co-author Dr. Sahil Agrawal, also a chief cardiology fellow at St. Luke’s University Health Network.
Marijuana users were more likely than non-users to have a history of depression (32.9% vs. 14.5%), psychosis (11.9% vs. 3.8%), anxiety disorder (28.4% vs. 16.2%), alcoholism (13.3% vs. 2.8%), tobacco use (73.3% vs. 28.6%) and multiple substance abuse (11.4% vs. 0.3%).
Because some of these can increase the risk of stress cardiomyopathy, the team adjusted for known risk factors to investigate the association between marijuana use and stress cardiomyopathy.
“If you are using marijuana and develop symptoms such as chest pain and shortness of breath, you should be evaluated by a healthcare provider to make sure you aren’t having stress cardiomyopathy or another heart problem,” Dr. Singh said.
The results were published in the journal Circulation and presented Nov. 13 at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2016.
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Amitoj Singh et al. 2016. Marijuana (Cannabis) Use is an Independent Predictor of Stress Cardiomyopathy in Younger Men. Circulation 134 (Suppl 1): A14100
This article is based on a press-release from the American Heart Association.
