Age and Survival in Cases of Acute Myocardial Infarction

For the elderly patient with acute myocardial infarction a poor prognosis is frequently made by his attending physician, even when an uneventful recovery appears to be in progress. It is not clear whether this attitude is based on sound clinical and statistical experience or originates from the defeatism that has long been associated with treatment of the aged. It is true that crude statistics have shown that the mortality rate from acute myocardial infarction increases among those of advancing years. Woods and Barnes 1 observed the death rate to be twice as great among those beyond 60 as among those below; Rathe, 2 in his analysis of a series of cases, concluded that a poor prognosis is indicated when the patient is over 55. Hellmuth, 3 Levine and Brown 4 and others also confirmed the observation that the prognosis of an acute attack of myocardial infarction becomes progressively more serious