Lichtgedanken 04

Rubrik 47 04 | LICHT GEDANKEN ozone (O 3 ) and fine dust (PM 10 ) taken by the Thuringian Regional Office for the Environment and Geology, which col- lects these parameters for air pollution in Jena. The researchers looked in great detail to see whether the concentra- tions of the key air pollutants changed to an unusually high degree within the 24 hours prior to the first heart attack symptoms. Even Jena’s clean air is affected by temporarily dangerous smog The researchers knowingly opted for a clean city as their study location. In the eight-year period considered, the ap- plicable European limit values for all measured air pollution parameters were adhered to in Jena, with the exception of just a few days. At the start of the study, the doctors expected the risk for heart attack to correlate with the changes in air quality. »We were really surprised by how direct the correlation is; it is almost linear«, says Dr Florian Rakers, senior author of the study. The Jena scientist and doctor is focusing his research on the effect of environmental influences on the emergence of illnesses. Acute risk of heart attack doubles when nitrogen oxide increases Prof. Dr Matthias Schwab, senior con- sultant at the Neurology Clinic and co-author of the study, explains: »The acute risk of heart attack in our study doubled in cases where the concentra- tion of nitrogen oxide increased by 20 micrograms per cubic metre within one day«. »Rapid increases in the concen- tration of nitrogen oxide occur around 30 times per year, even in a supposedly clean city such as Jena. This is likely to be due to an exceptionally high volume of traffic or meteorological factors, which favour the development of smog«, con- tinues Dr Rakers. The results were less clear-cut for fine dust and ozone. »It was not possible to Contact Dr Florian Rakers Department of Neurology Am Klinikum 1, D-07747 Jena, Germany Phone: + 49 3641 9-32 34 86 Email: Florian.Rakers@med.uni-jena.de www.neuro.uniklinikum-jena.de Original Publication Rapid increases in nitrogen oxides are associated with acute myocardial infarction: A case-crossover study. Eur J Prev Cardiol (2018), DOI: 10.1177/2047487318755804 draw a correlation between a rapid in- crease in both of these air pollutants and the acute risk of heart attack. Neverthe- less, high concentrations of fine dust and ozone are particularly harmful for patients with lung diseases«, emphas- ised Prof. Dr P. Christian Schulze, Dir- ector of the Clinic for Internal Medicine I and the co-author of the study. With their study, the Jena scientists are expanding upon the available know- ledge about the harmfulness of nitrogen oxide. Dr Florian Rakers: »Evidently, the risk of a heart attack does not just in- crease when people are exposed to high levels of nitrogen oxide in the ambient air for short or long periods but also when the level of nitrogen oxide rises quickly.« As a result, nitrogen oxide can be harmful even in comparatively clean air. According to the authors of the study, the clinical relevance of the find- ings means that there is an urgent need for a larger-scale research also in other geographical regions, so that the EU limit values can be expanded to include dynamic components where required. B A C K G R O U N D Nitrogen oxide (NO X ) is predominantly released through the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal or oil, but in lower quantities also through electric discharges in the atmosphere during storms. When combined with ultraviolet sunlight, nitrogen oxide contributes to the formation of ozone (summer smog), particularly in congested inner cities. Nitrogen oxide also functions as a greenhouse gas and is responsible for the formation of »acid rain«. Nitrogen oxide irritates and damages the respiratory organs and can, as the latest study from Jena proves, also significantly increase the risk of a heart attack. Image left: Combustion engines, especially those in diesel cars, can significantly increase the levels of nitrogen oxide in the air over the short-term.