Acute myocardial infarction in patients older than 80 years: 3 years later

Objective

To analyze the survival and functional capacity 3 years after an acute myocardial infarction in patients older than 80 years.

Methods

It is a retrospective study. We studied all patients admitted from 1 January 1994 to 31 December 1997 with a myocardial infarction who were older than 80 years. The analysis of functional capacity was realized through telephone interview. We analyzed mortality during hospital stay and 3 years after. Used was a daily activity scale (DAS) compounded by five actions (walking, dressing, bathing, cleaning and eating). Each action had a punctuation from 0 to 2 (0 = total dependence, 1 = partial dependence and 2 = independence). The total punctuation had a range from 0 to 10. The statistical analysis was realized by Student t-test and values P < 0.05 were taken to establish a statistically significant difference.

Results

Studied were 112 patients (48.21% were male). The localization of the myocardial infarction was anterior in 63.39% cases and 77.67% developed Q wave. During hospital stay 41 patients died (36.60%), at the end of the first year 53 patients were dead (50.89% accumulate mortality), and after 3 years 65 patients were dead (the accumulate mortality was 58.03%). The 47 survivors had a mean DAS 8.42 ± 3.01. There were significant differences on comparing the development of Q-wave (8.81 with Q-wave vs 8.22 without Q-wave) and the sex (8.95 males vs 7.86 females). None had significant differences according to the localization of myocardial infarction (8.25 anterior vs 8.69 inferior).

Conclusions

Patients older than 80 years with a myocardial infarction had an acceptable functional capacity 3 years later, although the accumulate mortality was elevated.