Influence of Intermittent Fasting During Ramadan on Circadian Variation of Symptom-Onset and Prehospital Time Delay in Acute ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

Ramadan interferes with circadian rhythms mainly by disturbing the routine patterns of feeding and smoking. The objective of this study was to investigate the circadian pattern of ST elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI) during the month of Ramadan. We studied consecutive STEMI patients 1 month before and after Ramadan (non-Ramadan group-NRG) and during Ramadan (Ramadan group-RG). The RG group was also divided into two groups, based on whether they chose to fast: fasting (FG) and non-fasting group (NFG). The time of STEMI onset was compared. A total of 742 consecutive STEMI patients were classified into 4 groups by 6 h intervals according to time-of-day at symptom onset. No consistent circadian variation in the onset of STEMI was observed both between the RG (P = .938) and NRG (P = .766) or between the FG (P = .232) and NFG (P = .523). When analyzed for subgroups of the study sample, neither smoking nor diabetes showed circadian rhythm. There was a trend towards a delay from symptom onset to hospital presentation, particularly at evening hours in the RG compared with the control group. In conclusion, there was no significant difference in STEMI onset time, but the time from symptom onset to hospital admission was significantly delayed during Ramadan.