Acute myocardial infarction in the elderly. Is primary coronary angioplasty the treatment of choice? In-hospital follow-up results.
BACKGROUND
Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the main causes of death in the elderly, however, the optimal therapy of AMI in this age-group has not yet been established.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the early outcome of patients with AMI aged > or =75 years who underwent primary percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) or were treated conservatively.


METHODS
In-hospital outcome of 180 patients aged > or =75 years, hospitalised due to AMI, was retrospectively analysed. Ninety two consecutive patients, admitted with AMI between May 2001 and October 2002, underwent primary PCI whereas 88 patients, treated for AMI between 1993 and 2002, received standard pharmacological therapy without thrombolysis.


CONCLUSIONS
Primary PCI in the elderly with AMI is significantly more effective than conservative therapy, except with patients with cardiogenic shock in whom mortality is similar regardless of the therapy used.
Zielińska
Marzenna
M
Department of Cardiology, Institute of Cardiology, Medical University, Łódź, Poland.
Bolińska
Halina
H
Kaczmarek
Krzysztof
K
Krekora
Jan
J
Kuczborski
Maciej
M
Kośmider
Maciej
M
Koniarek
Włodzimierz
W
D000368:Aged; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D012770:Shock, Cardiogenic / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D016896:Treatment Outcome