Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol can curb recurrent narrowing of the coronary arteries in patients who have had heart surgery, researchers said on Tuesday.

The benefits of drinking reasonable amounts of alcohol to reduce the risk of heart disease are well known, but scientists at Heidelberg University in Germany have shown that even after the damage has been done and repaired, alcohol has a protective effect.

Balloon angioplasty is a standard treatment for coronary artery disease. It involves inserting a tiny balloon into the artery, inflating it and putting a mesh tube in place to hold the artery open so blood can flow freely through it.

In the current study involving patients who had angioplasty and stenting to open up a blocked artery, alcohol cut the risk of restenosis, or re-narrowing of the treated artery, which normally occurs in 30-40 percent of patients in the first four months afterwards.

“Alcohol consumption in this patient population reduced the incidence of restenosis,” said Dr Feraydoon Niroomand, a cardiologist at the university. “This is the first time this has been shown in patients.”

Niroomand and his team questioned 225 male patients who had angioplasty about how much alcohol they drank in the first few months after the procedure.

The researchers, who reported their findings in the journal Heart, found that patients who drank little or no alcohol had more blocked arteries, worse cholesterol levels and poorer heart function than patients who drank at least 50 grams of alcohol a week - equivalent to about a bottle of wine or 2.5 liters of beer.

The non-drinkers were also more likely to need a repeat angioplasty. Forty-two percent of patients in the study who drank little or no alcohol needed a repeat angioplasty, compared to 23 percent in the group who consumed moderate amounts.

“There are data from experimental studies that show alcohol reduces the proliferation of smooth muscle cells which constitute the majority of the vessel wall and which are also responsible for this re-narrowing,” Niroomand said.

However, Niroomand commented, the results should not encourage people to take up or increase their drinking.

SOURCE: Heart, September 2004.