Clinical and anamnestic features and the nature of medical care for patients of older age groups as factors of unfavorable prognosis of myocardial infarction

Objective : to study the features of the anamnestic background, clinical course, as well as the nature of medical care for elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) and to assess their impact on the prognosis of the disease. Material and methods : the study included patients 60 years and older who survived acute MI and registered in the «Register of Acute Myocardial Infarction»(Tomsk) (n=410). The study conducted a 5-year prospective follow-up of patients with an assessment of their vital status. The Statistica V10.0 application software package («StatSoft Inc.») was used for statistical processing of the data obtained. Results : the analysis showed that 90% of patients had a history of comorbid pathology. In almost 20% of patients, the onset of the disease was characterized by an atypical clinical picture, which in more than a third of cases was represented by a low-symptomatic form. The presence of atypical MI manifestation lengthened the prehospital stage of medical care due to the late treatment of patients for medical help (120 [49; 311.5] minutes), as well as longer time before the first medical contact (26.5 [20;40] minutes (p=0.005)). A fifth of patients were treated for acute MI in non-core hospitals, where the hospital mortality rate among elderly patients reached 65.7%, which was 3 times higher than the same indicator in specialized cardiology departments (19.7%, p<0.001). Conclusion : the main factors affecting the long-term postinfarction period in elderly patients were: isolated systolic arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, impaired renal function, a history of myocardial infarction and acute cerebrovascular accident.