Circulating Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Incident Adverse Events in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction
Dietary omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) is known to have many cardioprotective properties. It is also observed that EPA might limit the progression for myocardial damage in the event of myocardial infarction (MI). Lazaro and colleagues (2020) conducted a study titled “Circulating Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Incident Adverse Events in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction” published in the Journal of American College of Cardiology. The summary of this study is given below:
Objectives:
To investigate the effect of serum phosphatidylcholine (PC) EPA levels during ST-segment elevation MI (STEMI) and its relation in lowering the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) causes for readmission for cardiovascular (CV) diseases, and all-cause mortality at 3 years’ follow-up.
To study the relationship of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) which is a proxy for vegetable omega-3 intake with all-cause mortality and MACE.
Method:
944 patients with STEMI who were undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention have participated in the study. Serum-PC fatty acids with gas chromatography were determined.
Findings:
The study reports that a high level of serum-PC EPA (a marine omega-3) at the time of a STEMI is associated with a low risk of incident MACE and CV-hospital readmission during follow-up. Additionally, the levels of serum PC ALA is inversely associated with all-cause mortality. These findings conclude that consumption of foods rich in EPA and ALA could serve as a preventive strategy to lower the risk of STEMI. Also, dietary ALA and EPA appeared to be partners, rather than competitors, in improving the long-term prognosis of a STEMI. The study also reports the beneficial effect of dietary omega 3 fatty acid in the event of an MI, by improving the long-term vital and functional CV diagnosis. While ALA has received less attention in previous studies, this study highlighted it as a fatty acid of interest.
Limitation:
Investigators acknowledge that whether the consumption of dietary EPA and ALA intakes before STEMI actually improves the long-term prognosis was not determined as it was an observational study. Fatty acid in adipose tissue and red blood cells is a better indicator of fatty acid than serum PC. Lastly, dietary data aside from fatty acids and a few potential confounding variables like education, socioeconomic status, and pharmacologic treatments at baseline and through follow-up were not available; therefore, investigators couldn’t exclude the chance that health-related variables which will covary with omega-3 fatty acids might be affecting the studied outcomes.
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