PROGNOSIS AFTER FIRST MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION

Abstract

Abstract. The study includes 404 patients with their first myocardial infarction, admitted to a Coronary Care Unit within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms. Sixty‐two patients (15%) died during the first month following admission. A follow‐up examination was carried out of the remaining patients after a minimum observation time of 12 months and a maximum of 38 months. It was possible to demonstrate, using the life‐table method, that patients with their first myocardial infarction have a significantly poorer survival rate than the normal population. In patients still living one month after the acute attack of first myocardial infarction it was shown: 1) that there is a poorer survival rate with increasing age, 2) that women have a poorer survival rate than men, partly because the average age of the women is higher and partly because the old women (≥ 70 years) have a considerably higher mortality rate than the old men, 3) that the site of the infarction, the magnitude and duration of the ST elevation in standard ECG leads in the acute phase are of no prognostic importance for long‐term survival.