Relationship between Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Development of Acute Coronary Syndrome

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) which known as subcategory of coronary heart disease is considered a major cause of death. In Saudi Arabia, the prevalence of ACS is 8.2%. Early recognition of risk factors (RFs) associated with ACS is essential to prevent its progression. Therefore, the goals of this study is to estimate the prevalence of cardiovascular RFs among ACS patients and to appraise its association with the development of ACS. This retrospective multi-center cross-sectional study involved 170 patients admitted to Prince Sultan cardiac center, King Saud Hospital, and Bukayriyah General Hospital in Al Qassim, KSA. The participants categorized into three groups UA, NSTEMI, and STEMI. Patients with stable angina or previous MI were excluded from the study. 73.5% were males and 26.5% were females with a mean age of 58.2 ± 11.9. The distribution of ACS subtypes was 51.2%, 27.6%, and 21.2% for STEMI, NSTEMI and UA, respectively. The most common RFs were diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (66% each), and dyslipidemia (58%). The prevalence of RFs among STEMI group was 65.6% active smokers, 54.5% dyslipidemia, and 52.2% ischemic heart disease (IHD). On the other hand, in NSTEMI group hypertension and DM were nearly the same (32% & 30% respectively), however family history of IHD was 42.9%. UA revealed a strong association with IHD and family history of IHD (30.4%, 28.6%, respectively).To conclude, most of ACS patients presented with STEMI followed by NSTEMI and the least with UA. Among the cardiovascular risk factors, HTN, DM, and dyslipidemia, were presented in more than half of the patients which strongly suggests an association with developing ACS.