Nicotine Patches Do Not Increase Risk For First Heart Attack
Penn Researchers Take a Real World Look at Patch Use
(Philadelphia, PA) - Despite earlier reports to the contrary, nicotine patches do not increase your risk for heart attack. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center compared 2,990 control subjects and 635 recent first-time sufferers of heart attacks from 68 hospitals in the Philadelphia region to study the use of nicotine patches. Their report is published in the April edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
"We do not find any evidence linking nicotine patches, when used as directed, to heart attacks" said Stephen Kimmel, MD, assistant professor of medicine in Penn's Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology.