Increase in low-risk AMI survivors from 2001 to 2011

(HealthDay)—The proportion of low-risk survivors of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) increased from 2001 to 2011, and characteristics include younger age, male gender, and being married, according to a study published in the May 15 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.

Mayra Tisminetzky, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, and colleagues reviewed data from 4,268 residents of the Worcester metropolitan area discharged after an AMI from three central Massachusetts hospitals from 2001 to 2011.

The researchers found that 43.5 percent of patients were classified as low-risk survivors of an AMI from 2001 to 2011, 12.3 percent died, and 44.2 percent had at least one rehospitalization during the following year. During the study period there was an increase in the proportion of low-risk survivors from 42.6 to 46.4 percent and a decrease in the proportion of those who died within a year after hospital discharge from 14.3 to 10.5 percent. After adjustment for multiple patient characteristics, the likelihood of being classified as a low-risk AMI survivor was increased for younger persons (≤65 years), men, married patients, patients not presenting with multimorbidities, and patients who did not develop in-hospital clinical complications.

"Identifying low-risk survivors of an AMI may help health care providers to focus more intensive efforts and interventions on those at higher risk for dying and/or being readmitted to the hospital during the post-discharge transition period after an AMI," the authors write.

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