Hospital Course and Early Complications Of Acute Myocardial Infarction In Patients Admitted to the CCU

Myocardial infarction (MI) with a 25-30% mortality rate is one of the most common causes of death in most country. MI has many complications such as heart failure, mitral regurgitation, interventricular septal defect and various arrhythmia. Management of this disease and treatment of complications require complete recognition of them. This study was designed to investigate these criteria. This descriptive study was done on 320 patients with acute MI. Demographic data and history of coronary risk factors that were selected by non randomized consecutive sampling were collected by questionnaire and MI complications were determined by physical examination, electrocardiogram and echocardiography. Patients were followed during hospital staying. The sample included 71% males, 29% females and the average age was 59.5 years. The least frequency was under 35-year age group and the highest frequency was between 65 to 75 years old. 78% of infarctions were Q wave and 13% were non-Q wave. The most frequent site of MI was inferior and the least was lateral MI.10.9 percent of patients died after admission. The most common cause of death was cardiogenic shock (65.7%). 286 patients who had echocardiography (89.37%) revealed left ventricular systolic dysfunction (in 83.57%), mitral regurgitation (29.7%) and 1.14% of them had VSD. In patients over 65 years, the severity of left ventricular systolic failure was higher (p<0.0001). In patients with non Q wave MI the ejection fraction was higher than who had developed Q wave MI (p<0.05). Although this study’s result is match with the results of studies those have been done in many countries the mortality rate and complications of myocardial infarction without aggressive therapeutic measure is still very high.