Acute Myocardial Infarction in the Young

Background- The purpose of this study was to assess frequency, risk factors, complications and mortality rate of young patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), in Yazd. Methods- From a database of 815 consecutive patients admitted to Yazd hospitals with AMI between 2001 and 2002, we compared care, risk factors, complications and outcome of patients, divided into two age groups: < 45 years, (young) and >45 years (old). Risk factors, type of AMI, management, complications and hospital outcomes of the 2 groups were evaluated. Results- The young patients represented 11.6% of all cases, and 10% of these individuals were female. Smoking (60.2% vs. 33.6%, P. value=0.000), positive family history (40.2% vs. 28.6%, P. value=0.017) and obesity (25% vs. 13.9% P. value=0.022) were more common in the young group. Diabetes mellitus (24.1% vs. 46.9%, P. value=0.000) and hypertension (15.1% vs. 43.3%, P. value=0.000) were more common in the old patients. Young male patients had less in-hospital mortality (1.2% vs. 9.1%, P. value=0.005) than old male patients, but in the females the difference of mortality between young and old was not significant (10% vs. 19.9%, P. value=0.3). Conclusion- In this study, about one-tenth of the patients with AMI were < 45 years old. Smoking, obesity and positive family history were more common in the young patients, and overall mortality rate was low in the young