Background: The timing of acute coronary events may be related to endogenous and exogenous--environmental--factors.
Aim: To check if daily levels of geomagnetic activity (GMA) and/or cosmic ray activity (CRA) measured by neutron activity (imp/min) on the Earth's surface are related by timing with specific culprit artery of AMI.
Patients and methods: Data of PCI for AMI (n=904, 696 men) from 01/2000 to 02/2006 (2251 days) were used for analysis. Daily GMA (I-IV levels) and neutron activity in imp/min were compared with localization of the culprit artery in AMI (LAD, RCA, CRX and Diagonal). The principal consideration was concentrated in the most frequent lesions of LAD (n=422) and RCA (n=332). The cosmophysical data were derived from USA, Russia and Finland.
Results: Similar to the whole 2251 days, the PCI were inversely related to GMA (p=0.03) and show a strong tendency to increase at higher CRA (p=0.07). Comparing data on two high (III, IV) and low (I, II) levels of GMA shows that, at high GMA, RCA and LAD lesions were equal; at the more often low daily levels of GMA, accompanied by higher CRA (neutron) activity (p<0.0001), LAD lesions were higher by 30% (chi(2)=-4.064, p=0.04).
Conclusion: At higher daily levels of GMA, RCA/LAD culprit lesions in AMI are equal; at low GMA and higher CRA (neutron) activity, LAD lesions are predominant.