Abstract
Background: The burden of coronary artery disease (CAD) is on the rise globally & we need simple and reliable physical signs to identify high risk individuals. There are very few studies related to prevalence of Ear lobe crease (ELC) & Ear canal hair (ECH) and its association with CAD in Indian population.
Aim: To find out incidence of ear lobe crease and ear canal hair in patients of myocardial infarction & their correlation with other known risk factor of myocardial infarction.
Materials & Methods: It was an observational, cross-sectional study conducted in a rural tertiary care center consisting of two groups, study group consisting of 100 cases of myocardial infarction and control group consisting of 200 patients having disease other than coronary artery disease& were studied for the presence of Ear lobe crease and ear canal hair and relation with other risk factors.
Results: The study group was divided into two groups, group A with known risk factors (78%) & group B with without known risk factors (22%). In study group A,43.58% had both ear lobe crease and ear canal hair while 29.5% had isolated ear lobe crease. In group B,31.8% had both ear lobe crease and ear canal hair and isolated ear lobe crease.74% of study participants and 16% of control group had ear lobe crease while 35% in study group and 6% of control group had ear canal hair. Incidence of death was more in group B (31.18%) than in group A (14.10%).
Conclusion: Incidence of complications and death was more in a group with known risk factors absent when compared with the group in which known risk factors were present, thus it can be concluded that ,ear lobe crease & ear canal hair is not only an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease but also a bad prognostic indicator.
Keywords: Coronary artery disease, Ear lobe crease, Ear canal hair.
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Corresponding Author
Dr Akshay V. Bharati
Junior Resident, Department of General Medicine, SRTR GMC, Ambajogai, Maharashtra, India
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v8i3.59
