PhD Scientific Days 2023

Clinical Medicine II.

The Cardiac Effects of Regular Alcohol Consumption

Text of the abstract

Introduction: Previous studies have shown that high alcohol consumption is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, the effects of moderate alcohol consumption and the type of alcohol consumed on cardiovascular health are not clear from the literature.

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the cardiac effects of regular alcohol consumption in patients undergoing coronary CT angiography. We examined the effects of weekly alcohol consumption and alcohol type on the prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) and coronary artery disease (CAD).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of patients who underwent left atrial CT angiography before catheter ablation for AF and patients who underwent coronary CT angiography for suspected CAD. Alcohol intake and type of alcohol were recorded using a questionnaire that patients completed before the CT scan. The weekly amount of alcohol consumed has been standardized in units according to international guidelines as follows: 1 bottle of wine equals 7 units, 1 bottle of beer equals 2 units, and 4 cl of spirits equals 1 unit of alcohol.

Results:We analyzed data from a total of 2937 patients. Among them, 657 patients did not provide information on alcohol consumption, so we included 2280 patients in the final analysis. The average age of the patients was 59.7±12.1 years; 36.1% were female. 43.7% of the patients consumed alcohol regularly. The average alcohol consumption was 4.2±8.1 units. We did not find any significant differences between the AF and non-AF groups in terms of weekly alcohol consumption (4.4±8.7 vs. 3.9±7.6; p=0.23), or in the type of alcohol consumed (p>0.05 for each type of alcohol). In terms of CAD, we also did not find any significant differences in either the amount of alcohol consumed (4.1±7.48 in patients with CAD vs. 3.31±7.0 in those without CAD; p=0.14) or in the type of alcohol consumed (p>0.05 for each type of alcohol).

Conclusion: In our study, we did not find any differences in weekly alcohol consumption between patients with and without AF, or between patients with and without CAD.