Hematocrit and Prognosis in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

It has previously been demonstrated that the mean hematocrit value in patients with acute myocardial infarction is higher than that in control subjects. Although never studied on a statistical basis, it has long been suspected that those patients with coronary heart disease who have higher hematocrit values tend to have poorer prognoses. However, when hematocrit values of 190 patients on admission to a coronary care unit were correlated with their ultimate hospital course, patients having higher hematocrit values tended to have slightly, but not significantly, better prognoses than those with lower hematocrit values. It has also been noted that, at least on a statistical basis, all of the fall in mean hematocrit values which occurred during the first three hospital days could be attributed to diagnostic phlebotomy rather than to previously suspected plasma volume alterations.