People who resume smoking after hospitalization for a heart attack are more likely to die than those who quit for good, a new Italian study confirms. The findings -- that patients who relapsed were three to five times more likely to die than those who stop -- suggest that doctors and hospitals need to do more to support long-term smoking-cessation efforts after discharge, the researchers said. For the study, recently published in the American Journal of Cardiology, researchers followed 1,294 smokers hospitalized with symptoms of acute coronary syndrome, characterized by severe chest pain suggestive of a heart blockage or heart attack. The patients had stopped smoking while in the hospital.
