ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction in young people: influence of age in the smoke paradox

Abstract Introduction and objectives Smoking has been related with lower short-term mortality among patients with acute myocardial infarction. This may be caused by different baseline characteristics, since smokers are significantly younger at the time of infarction. Our purpose was to study the smoking paradox focusing on age. Methods We retrospectively studied 118 consecutive people aged  Results Arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus, were more frequent in the older group (P  Conclusions Young smokers maintained the lower short-term events paradox. Our findings can contribute to explain the apparently different course of myocardial infarction in young people and point out a different mechanism of infarction in smokers.