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)

Obama is a Blatant Liar

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama said Tuesday that political motives are behind GOP efforts to block the overhaul of health care in Congress.

President Obama takes on critics of health care legislation in remarks Tuesday at the White House.

In a Rose Garden statement from the White House, Obama said Republicans "who openly announce their intentions to block this reform" would "rather score political points" than confront an ailing health care system that is draining the federal budget while leaving 46 million Americans uninsured.

"Time and again we've heard excuses to delay and defeat reform," Obama said a day after Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele called for blocking health care legislation under debate in Congress.

The president said such tactics "play the politics of the moment instead of putting the interests of the people first."

He opens his mouth and proves once again how disconnected he is from the rest of the country. I oppose nationalized health care and it has nothing to do with political tactics. I'm against further denigrating this nation by reinforcing laziness. Social handouts do nothing to improve our country. We're already a nation of expected entitlements.

Every person who has looked at both the House and Senate versions of the proposed Bills have agreed that Obama is a bold face American liar. While this legislation will let you maintain your present policies, the minute anything changes in your status (no matter how insignificant your change) you WILL lose your present policy and be forced to enroll in a policy that is designed by the government. Obama knows this, but he is again recklessly lobbying to have inadequate and horribly crafted legislation passed BEFORE the American people are fully informed. Can anyone say, "Stimulus?"

What has the federal government ever done in a cost effective manner and done it efficiently. It can't even make it's own deadlines for preparing reports about where they can make the cuts Obama says are necessary to very partially fund his handout to America.

Then, in a slap in the face to all American soldiers and veteran's, Obama and his political allies dramatically weakened a nation today by cutting the funding to the unmatched and most technologically advanced fighter jet in the world. If we don't continue to stay ahead of the rest of the world in military innovation, then we are just inviting military confrontations.

Your president is the worst in history. I wondered who would be worse - him or Carter - and it's clear that he is surpassing Carter in every category of terrible.

No One Ever Seizes Power With The Intention Of Relinquishing It.

“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?”

“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.” I wonder if he knew just how prophetic his words would be when he penned them. Obama and the worst congress in history are recklessly hurrying through legislation, because they know they only have a limited amount of time before the masses begin to realize just how damaging they really are to America.

The truly unfortunate aspect of this, however, is that the damage will be done before America stands up and calls them on it. By then they will have unprecedented power. By then, the money and lifestyle that they have worked so hard to obtain and maintain will be public domain at the pleasure of the government. By then, their liberties and freedoms will be controlled and dispensed at the pleasure of the government. By then, their healthcare will be dictated and rationed at the pleasure of the government. By then, private business will no longer be in control of their destiny and will be told who they can hire/fire, what products they can/cannot produce, and who/where they will be allowed to market those products.

Wake up America.

We The People!