Ischemic Preconditioning - Application

Application

The only group of humans who are chronically exposed to an opioid with delta activity are methadone maintained patients treated for heroin dependence and addiction. These patients have a coronary risk profile greater than the general population:

  1. 90% smoke. In the general population in the USA ~25% smoke.
  2. Heart Healthy living i.e. attention to lipid control is less frequent than in the general population
  3. ~25% of the patients in Methadone Maintenance Programs use the highly ischemogenic cocaine one or more times a year. In the general population in the USA less than 1% are reported to do so.

Preliminary and as yet unpublished surveys of the methadone treated population point to a high degree of protection from myocardial ischemic events. The one published study, an autopsy series from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York demonstrated significantly less evidence for coronary occlusive disease. Simulation of IPC with methadone could not be evaluated in this post mortem investigation.

Read more about this topic:  Ischemic Preconditioning

Famous quotes containing the word application:

    We will not be imposed upon by this vast application of forces. We believe that most things will have to be accomplished still by the application called Industry. We are rather pleased, after all, to consider the small private, but both constant and accumulated, force which stands behind every spade in the field. This it is that makes the valleys shine, and the deserts really bloom.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    The application requisite to the duties of the office I hold [governor of Virginia] is so excessive, and the execution of them after all so imperfect, that I have determined to retire from it at the close of the present campaign.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

    The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man ... not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.
    Jean Genet (1910–1986)