Effects of Alcohol Consumption on Cardiovascular Features among Iraqi Individuals with Alcohol Abuse

Effects of alcohol consumption on cardiovascular system is analogous to a double-edged sword. It can take opposite forms, depending on how, when and the quantity consumed by a particular person, as it has both, a debatable positive as well as negative impact on cardiovascular health. Alcohol consumption has been associated with a variety of cardiovascular diseases, and the relationship between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular diseases is complex. The effects of alcohol on the heart include modification of the risk of coronary artery disease, development of alcoholic cardiomyopathy, exacerbation of conduction disorders, atrial and ventricular dysrhythmias, increased risk of hypertension, and fetal heart abnormalities. The purpose of our research is to study the cardiovascular manifestations in individuals with alcohol abuse in our setup. This study aimed to assess the spectrum of cardiovascular manifestations using clinical examination, lipid profile, and echocardiography (ECHO) in individuals with alcohol abuse. This case?control study was done in Ibn Al-Nafees hospital in Baghdad / Iraq during the period from July 2015 to January 2017 on 80 individuals with alcohol abuse (as per diagnostic and statistical manual-IV criteria) within the age group of 18?70 years. From the hospital's outpatient clinic, 70 age-, sex-, and weight-matched healthy individuals were taken as controls. They underwent a detailed clinical examination, lipid profile, and two-dimensional ECHO to assess the cardiovascular manifestations. Results showed that 13 (16.3%) of the individuals with alcohol abuse were hypertensive. There was positive correlation between alcohol abuse and hypertriglyceridemia (145.3 ? 44.5). Echocardiographic mean left ventricular mass index (LVMI) among the individuals with alcohol abuse was 97.1 ? 4.41 and among the control group was 90.3 ? 4.72. Our study concluded that the prevalence of hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia and echocardiographic with increased LVMI and diastolic dysfunction were higher in the alcoholic group when as compared with the normal people.