Internationale Zeitschrift für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung

Coronary Artery Profile of Young Kuwaiti Males on Anabolic Steroids

Mohammed Al Jarallah, Rajesh Rajan*, Khalid Al Braikan, Raja Dashti, Ibrahim Mahmoud Elkhouly, Vladimir Kotevski and Ahmad R Al-Saber

Background: To Study the coronary artery profile in young Kuwaiti patients who are using anabolic steroids for bodybuilding.

Subjects and methods: We have done a retrospective analysis of all young Kuwaiti male patients ≤ 30 years who underwent coronary angiogram in Sabah Al Ahmed Cardiac Center, Al Amiri Hospital during the period of 2014 to 2017. Patients were categorized into two groups, group A1 consisted of patents who were anabolic steroid users, while group A2 consisted of patients who were not anabolic steroid users. Chi-square test of independence was used to compare A1 and A2.

Results: We had a total of 19 male patients’ ≤ 30 years of age who underwent coronary angiogram during 2014 to 2017. We found 31.6% were on anabolic steroids. Smoking was seen as the commonest risk factor with 94.3% of overall patients. Acute coronary syndrome was established among 68.4% patients, 83.3% of the patients in group A1 while only 61.5% were in group A2 (p=0.342). Normal coronary angiograms were reported in 16.7% in A1 and 30.8% in A2 (p=0.516). Slow flow was reported in 31.6% patients overall, group A1 had 33.3% and group A2 had 30.8% (p=0.911). Left anterior descending artery (LAD) was found culprit in 26.3% and right coronary artery (RCA) was found culprit in 26.3%.

Conclusion: Incidence of acute coronary syndrome associated with anabolic steroid use was 83.3%, it was contributed to by LAD and RCA lesions along with slow flow phenomenon.