People who suffer a heart attack early in the morning suffer more damage than other victims of the illness, researchers claimed today.
The waking up period in the morning is thought to be the time of greatest risk of having an attack – and the latest study suggests that any attack at this time is more dangerous than at other times.
British experts said people should realise a heart attack was dangerous at any time of day – and that more work was needed to confirm the findings.
Spanish researchers studied more than 800 patients admitted for a heart attack in Madrid over a seven year period.
They estimated the size of the damage to the heart by measuring release of enzymes.
Well over a quarter of the attacks – some 269 – took place in the six hours following 6am. Another 240 took place during the day between noon and 6pm.
Writing in the journal Heart, Dr Borja Ibanez, of the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), says the study showed that people who fell ill in the early morning suffered 20 per cent more damage to the heart than later in the day.
Judy O’Sullivan, of the British Heart Foundation, said the findings were "interesting".
She added: “The authors claim that early morning heart attacks are more likely to result in greater heart muscle damage than those that happen later in the day. However further research is needed before we can draw firm conclusions.
“Regardless of the time of day, the quicker someone having a heart attack is treated, the less the damage they will have, which is why it is essential that anyone who experiences heart attack symptoms should call 999 immediately.”
Circadian variations of infarct size in acute myocardial infarction. Sua´rez-Barrientos A, Lo´pez-Romero P, Vivas D, et al. Heart (2011). doi:10.1136/hrt.2010.212621
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