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Clinical profile and management of patients with incident and recurrent acute myocardial infarction in Albania - a call for more focus on prevention strategies Cover

Clinical profile and management of patients with incident and recurrent acute myocardial infarction in Albania - a call for more focus on prevention strategies

Open Access
|Oct 2017

Figures & Tables

Table 1

Characteristics of the study population.

Patient characteristicsAll patients (n=324)Incident cases (n=274)Recurrent cases (n=50)P value
Age (years), mean (SD)64.4 (11.4)63.7 (11.5)68.4 (10.1)0.01
Gender (male), n (%)239 (73.8)210 (76.6)29 (58.0)0.01
Education, n (%)
     Primary143 (44.1)113 (41.2)30 (60.0)0.01
     Secondary or higher181 (55.9)161 (58.8)20 (40.0)
Coronary risk factors, n (%)
     Smoking194 (59.9)171 (62.4)23 (46.0)0.03
     Hypertension270 (83.3)229 (83.6)41 (82.0)0.78
     Diabetes164 (50.6)135 (49.3)29 (58.0)0.26
     Hypercholesterolemia179 (55.3)149 (54.4)30 (60.0)0.46
     At least one risk factor320 (98.8)270 (98.5)50 (100.0)0.39
     All four risk factors45 (13.9)39 (14.2)6 (12.0)0.63
Comorbidities, n (%)
     Atrial fibrillation39 (12.1)26 (9.4)13 (27.7)<0.01
     Peripheral artery disease23 (7.1)20 (7.2)3 (6.4)0.84
     Cerebrovascular disease25 (7.4)19 (6.9)6 (12.8)0.16
     COPD17 (5.3)14 (5.1)3 (6.4)0.71
     eGFR<60 mL/min/1.73m277 (23.8)59 (21.5)18 (36.0)0.03
     Peptic ulcer23 (7.1)19 (6.9)4 (8.0)0.79
Pulse (beats/min), mean (SD)78 (16.8)77 (16.5)80 (18.5)0.37
Hemoglobin* (g/dl), mean (SD)12.8 (1.9)12.9 (1.8)11.9 (1.9)<0.01

COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; eGFR: estimated glomerular filtration rate.

* 4% of patients had missing values Incident cases were younger (P=0.01), more often men (P=0.01), and had attained a higher education (P=0.01) than recurrent cases. No statistically significant differences between groups were observed regarding hypertension, DM, and hypercholesterolemia. Smoking was more frequent among the incident cases (P=0.03).

Table 2

Clinical profile and in-hospital treatment of patients with an acute myocardial infarction.

All patients (n=324)Incident cases (n=274)Recurrent cases (n=50)P value
Clinical profile
STEMI, n (%)271 (83.9)230 (84.3)41 (82.0)0.69
Multivessel CAD, n (%)164 (75.9)136 (73.1)28 (93.3)0.03
Heart failure, n (%)109 (33.6)81 (29.6)28 (56.0)<0.01
LVEF<0.45, n (%)101 (31.2)77 (28.1)24 (48.0)0.01
AVB (2nd/3rd degree), n (%)13 (4.0)10 (3.7)3 (6.0)0.44
VF, n (%)16 (4.9)11 (4.0)5 (10.0)0.07
In-hospital treatment
Beta-blockers192 (59.3)172 (62.8)20 (40.0)0.01
ACEI/ARBs206 (63.6)179 (65.3)27 (54.0)0.12
Statins314 (96.9)268 (97.8)46 (92.0)0.05
Aspirin308 (95.1)261 (95.3)47 (94.0)0.71
All four drug classes144 (44.4)128 (46.7)16 (32.0)0.05
Invasive procedures
    Coronary angiography222 (68.5)192 (70.1)30 (60.0)0.16
    Revascularization*139 (64.4)122 (65.6)17 (56.7)0.34

STEMI: ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction; CAD: coronary artery disease; LVEF: left ventricular ejection fraction; AVB: atrioventricular block; VF: ventricular fibrillation; ACEI: angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor; ARB: angiotensin receptor blocker.

* Percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass grafting among patients undergoing coronary angiography.

Figure 1

Differences in the clinical profile between patients hospitalized with an incident and recurrent acute myocardial infarction.

Figure 2

Differences in the in-hospital treatment between patients hospitalized with incident and recurrent acute myocardial infarction.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/sjph-2017-0032 | Journal eISSN: 1854-2476 | Journal ISSN: 0351-0026
Language: English, Slovenian
Page range: 236 - 243
Submitted on: Nov 29, 2016
Accepted on: Aug 7, 2017
Published on: Oct 9, 2017
Published by: National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 2017 Sokol Myftiu, Enxhela Sulo, Genc Burazeri, Bledar Daka, Ilir Sharka, Artan Shkoza, Gerhard Sulo, published by National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.