Salivary Alpha-amylase Activity Level in ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients

Background and Objective: Sudden death is the main cause of mortality and disability in patients with coronary artery disease or myocardial infarction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the activity level of salivary alpha-amylase to predict malignant ventricular arrhythmias in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients.

Materials and Methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study, 42 patients with STEMI who referred to Imam Reza Hospital participated. First, salivary amylase was taken from all STEMI patients and then these patients were divided into two groups of patients with malignant ventricular arrhythmia or without malignant ventricular arrhythmia during 72 hours.

Results: A total of 42 patients were included in the study out of which 30 (71.4%) were females and 12 (28.6%) males. The average salivary amylase in patients was 118/41 ± 96/87. There was no significant difference in the frequency of diabetes, blood pressure, blood lipids, ischemic heart disease, and involvement severity in both groups with arrhythmia and lack of arrhythmias (P> 0.05). Also there was no significant difference in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respiratory rate, heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood glucose, temperature and severity of infarction (P> 0.05). However, the two groups were different in terms of salivary amylase levels. Salivary amylase levels were significantly higher in arrhythmic group than in the non-arrhythmic group (P< 0.001).

Conclusions: Our result shows that there is a difference in the concentrations of salivary Alpha-amylase activity level in with and without ventricular arrhythmias groups.