The article, “Cocaine Use is Associated With Increased LVMI in Unstably Housed Women With Polysubstance Use,” has been published in SAj.
In this commentary, the authors state that while substance use is known to influence cardiovascular health, most prior studies only consider one substance at a time. The authors examined associations between the concurrent use of multiple substances and left ventricular mass index (LVMI) in unhoused and unstably housed women.
In the AUTHORS’ OWN WORDS, they relate the importance of their work:
“Notably, these studies do not account for other substances, which is salient given rising trends of overdose death associated with polysubstance use. Furthermore, it has become clear that current CVD risk scores, often derived from study populations composed mostly of men, do not accurately predict CVD risk in women and that non-traditional risk factors are more common in women. Despite known sex differences in CVD risk factors, left ventricular (LV) remodeling, and a higher risk of death associated with LV hypertrophy in women, much of the existing evidence comes from predominantly male study populations. Sex-specific research that leads to sex-specific risk assessment models may improve risk prediction, particularly in women.”
“Our previous work showed that cocaine use is significantly associated with high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hsTnI) in hospitalized patients. Similarly, we found that toxicology-confirmed substance use is associated with higher levels of hsTnI in non-hospitalized, unstably housed women,18,26 suggesting potential ongoing cardiac injury in chronic users. The present study extends these findings to investigate structural evidence of end organ damage by examining the independent effects of stimulants and other substances on LVMI.”