Last updated 21 November 2011
The size and subsequent damage caused by a heart attack appears to vary depending on the time of day or night, new research has found.Scientists at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation in the US analysed data on 1,031 patients, all of whom had previously suffered a heart attack.
Among these, they identified 165 patients who had experienced their first heart attack and had narrowed arteries.
The researchers discovered that the size of an individual's heart attack was linked to the time of day that they experienced the attack.
Patients who had their heart attack between 01:00 and 05:00 tended to suffer the greatest level of injury - around 82 per cent worse than levels seen at the time of least injury.
The findings, which are published in the journal Circulation Research, echo those seen in earlier studies on animals.
Senior author Dr Jay Traverse, a cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, said: 'It is important to understand that the heart's ability to protect itself against more severe damage varies over a 24-hour cycle.
'Identifying those protective changes may be particularly relevant for pharmaceutical manufacturers that are seeking to develop cardio-protective drugs.'
There are around 124,000 heart attacks in the UK each year, according to the British Heart Foundation, with one in three patients dying before they reach hospital.
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/interactive/news/severity-of-heart-attack-depends-on-time-of-day--id801216673-t116.html
