Acute myocardial infarction: contemporary risk and management in older versus younger patients.
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abstract
The in-hospital management and risk of death of 101 patients 70 years of age or older with acute myocardial infarction in 1987 (group 1) were compared with management and risk for 106 temporally matched patients less than 70 years old (group 2). In group 1, 49% had histories of previous myocardial infarction, compared to 25% in group 2 (P less than 0.001), and 23% of group 1 presented without cardiac pain, versus 7% of group 2 (P less than 0.001). Among the younger patients, other conventional risk factors were, in contrast, more common (Q wave infarction 84% in group 2 versus 70% in group 1; P less than 0.05) or higher (peak creatine kinase values 2222 iu/L in group 2 versus 1366 iu/L in group 1; P less than 0.001). Prior to infarction, all cardiac drugs were used more frequently in the older group 1 patients, whereas post infarction thrombolysis, beta-blockers and acetylsalicylic acid use were all more common (P less than 0.01 to P less than 0.001) in the younger group 2 patients. Post infarction exercise testing, left ventricular ejection fraction calculations and coronary angiography were all performed less frequently in group 1 (P less than 0.001). The in-hospital mortality was 35% for group 1 versus 7% for group 2 (P less than 0.001). Among all 207 study subjects, multiple logistic regression revealed thrombolysis, absence of cardiac pain, and age 70 years or older to be associated with the greatest relative mortality risk. Increased relative risk to a lesser degree was associated with previous infarction, male sex and post infarction use of antiarrhythmic medication.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
