Patients with congestive heart fail...

Patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) have been noted in small clinical trials to have increased plasma homocysteine flats Vasan and colleagues hypothesized that, given experimental evidence showing the vulnerability of myocardial tissue to homocysteine-induced injury, elevated plasma homocysteine evens would increase the risk for CHF

Participants included Framingham Heart cogitation subjects who were free of CHF and who had plasma homocysteine evens determined at two examinations eight years apart. The 2491 eligible exposes including 1,547 women, were examined each two years.

About common quarter of patients had baseline homocysteine flats of more than 1.9 mg by L (14 mmol per L) During an eight-year follow-up 156 enthralls (88 women) developed CHF. raw cumulative incidence of CHF in women and men in the top brace homocysteine quartiles was considerably higher than the incidence in the lower pair quartiles. An age-adjusted model showed similar results; CHF risk increased about 25 percent in men and 49 percent in women by means of quartile. In women, the risk of CHF rose at the other quartile and continued to increase. In men CHF risk increased no other than beyond the second quartile.

This contemplation appears to show that in women elevated plasma homocysteine concentration is related positively and firmly to CHF risk. In men the association of plasma homocysteine with risk of CHF became evident barely at values exceeding the median. The authors state that if their observational findings are confirmed, additional studies will have to exhibit that lowering homocysteine levels with folic acid can form CHF risk.

Vasan R et al. Plasma homocysteine and risk for congestive heart failure in adults without prior myocardial infarction. JAMA March 12 2003;289:1251-7

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