Mortality in the early phase of acute myocardial infarction: a 3 year experience in the coronary care unit.

Mortality in the early phase of acute myocardial infarction occurs both during the pre-hospital period and after admission to the Coronary Care Unit. This report is an analysis of deaths that occurred in the Coronary Care Unit within a 3 year period. Forty percent of 304 patients (13 percent) unth. acute myocardial infarction died in the Coronary Care Unit, Fifty percent of the deaths were due to cardiac arrhythmias and 45 percent attributable to myocardial pump failure. Mean delay in hospital admission from onset of symptoms was 15 hours. Factors affecting early mortality and their prevention are discussed. therefore represent the survivors of this early mortality which is in the pre-hospital phase of acute myocardial infarction. A further mortality is extracted from these survivors during the coronary care unit period of stay. Prognostic factors that influence the mortality rate during this phase include age of patient, development of complications of arrhythmias, cardiac failure, cardiogenic shock, reinfarctions and whether the disease involves single or multiple vessels. Survivors of acute myocardial infarction face greatest risk of death in the first year, particularly in the first six months. Reported mortality rates in the first year ranges from 8 percent 25 percent and thereafter averaging 3 5 percent per year. 2,3,4