BACKGROUND:This work aims to correlate retina vessel alteration with the possible presence of coronary alteration in the same patient.METHODS:For this purpose 103 patients have been studied. Of these, 63 had symptoms of coronary heart disease while the remaining 40 were used as a control. 29 patients, out of the 63, were also afflicted with angine while 34 had previously had myocardial infarction. Eye fundus tests and coronarography have been carried out, and risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking have been investigated.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS:This work shows that there is a close correlation between a positive eye fundus and coronarography alteration whereas a negative one is not incompatible with organic lesions. A positive eye fundus due to alteration of retina microcirculation can be indicative of atherosclerosis in symptomatic patients.

The study examined a group of 150 patients with acute myocardial infarction aged under 60 years old. The subjects examined were divided into smokers and non-smokers; smokers were further subdivided into three groups: those smoking less than 20, between 20 and 40 and more than 40 cigarettes a day. Furthermore, they were divided into two groups aged under or over 40. The following parameters were evaluated and compared: the method of onset of acute myocardial infarction, the site of infarction, the presence or absence of the Q wave on the ECG, the presence of angina before and after acute myocardial infarction, arrhythmia during the acute phase and during hospitalisation, mortality during the first 10 days of hospitalisation. The results showed that cigarette smoking is a major risk factor able to influence the age of onset of acute myocardial infarction, especially if over 20 cigarettes a day, whereas it has no influence on clinical history and early death.