Risk Factors, Clinical Profile and Outcome of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Elderly Patients

Background: Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death among elderly patients. Although, chest pain is the most common presentation of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in elderly patients, there can be of predominance of other ischemic symptoms such as giddiness, dyspnoea, vomiting, sweating and epigastric pain in the absence of chest pain. Objective: To assess the risk factors, various symptoms, complications, prognosis and outcome of elderly patients with acute myocardial Infarction (AMI). Methods: This is a prospective study was carried out at Dept. of Cardiology, Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital, Gazipur, Bangladesh from January to July 2022. Seventy (70) elderly patients admitted to STAMCH with the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction and patients satisfying the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Results: Among the seventy patients the majority of the patients belonged to the age group 60-69 years. Twenty percent of the patients presented without chest pain. The atypical presentations included dyspnoea, giddiness, vomiting, sweating and epigastric pain. Mortality rate was 20%. Conclusions: Even though chest pain is the most common presentation in elderly AMI patients, atypical symptoms such as shortness of breath, giddiness, vomiting, sweating and epigastric pain without chest pain are much more common. This signifies the need of examining physicians to identify meticulously for acute myocardial infarction in elderly though they may not present typically.