Acute ST-Elevation MI Declining in US

By Michelle Rizzo

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jul 24 - The incidence of acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction has steadily decreased in the US since 1996, regardless of gender or ethnicity, to the lowest rates in years.

The researchers retrospectively examined data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database from 1988 to 2004 to determine the trend in age-adjusted incidence of inpatient acute STEMI. They also assessed the incidence by gender and by various races. The findings are published in the July issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

The database contained 1,352,574 patients, at least 40 years of age, who were diagnosed with STEMI between 1988 to 2004. The patients had a mean age of 66.06 years.

The age-adjusted STEMI rate was almost two times higher among men than among women (62.4% versus 37.6%, respectively). The age-adjusted rate for all acute STEMIs remained steady from 1988 to 1996 (108.32 per 100,000 in 1988; to 102.5 per 100,000 in 1996).

The age-adjusted incidence steadily decreased to half the incidence of the previous 8 years from 1996 onward (50.0 per 100,000 by 2004, p < 0.01).

This is good news. I was surprised by their findings. Health care in general has changed in the ten years I've been doing EMS. New and improved medications, new technologies, better informed patients, etc. Maybe one day they'll actually be able to prevent heart attacks all together. That's bad news for job security. :0)