Acute myocardial infarction: clinical and epidemiological profile and factors associated with in-hospital death in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro.

OBJECTIVE To study the factors associated with the risk of in-hospital death in acute myocardial infarction in the Brazilian public health system in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. METHODS Sectional study of a sample with 391 randomly drawn medical records of the hospitalizations due to acute myocardial infarction recorded in the hospital information system in 1997. RESULTS The diagnosis was confirmed in 91.7% of the cases; 61.5% males; age = 60.2 +/- 2.4 years; delta time until hospitalization of 11 hours; 25.3% were diabetic; 58.1% were hypertensive; 82.6% were in Killip I class. In-hospital mortality was 20.6%. Thrombolysis was used in 19.5%; acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) 86.5%; beta-blockers 49%; angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors 63.3%; calcium channel blockers 30.5%. Factors associated with increased death: age (61-80 years: OR=2.5; > 80 years: OR=9.6); Killip class (II: OR=1.9; III: OR=6; IV: OR=26.5); diabetes (OR=2.4); ventricular tachycardia (OR=8.5); ventricular fibrillation (OR=34); recurrent ischemia (OR=2.7). The use of ASA (OR=0.3), beta-blockers (OR=0.3), and ACE inhibitors (OR=0.4) was associated with a reduction in the chance of death. CONCLUSION General lethality was high and some interventions of confirmed efficacy were underutilizated. The logistic model showed the beneficial effect of beta-blockers, and ACE inhibitors on the risk of in-hospital death.