Trends in hospitalized acute myocardial infarction patients with heart failure in Korea at 1998 and 2008

Heart failure (HF) complicating acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is common and is associated with poor clinical outcome. Limited data exist regarding the incidence and in-hospital mortality of AMI with HF (AMI-HF). We retrospectively analyzed 1,427 consecutive patients with AMI in the five major university hospitals in Korea at two time points, 1998 (n=608) and 2008 (n=819). Two hundred twenty eight patients (37.5%) in 1998 and 324 patients (39.5%) in 2008 of AMI patients complicated with HF (P=0.429). AMI-HF patients in 2008 were older, had more hypertension, previous AMI, and lower systolic blood pressure than those in 1998. Regarding treatments, AMI-HF patients in 2008 received more revascularization procedures, more evidence based medical treatment and adjuvant therapy, such as mechanical ventilators, intra-aortic balloon pulsation compared to those in 1998. However, overall in-hospital mortality rates (6.4% vs 11.1%, P=0.071) of AMI-HF patients were unchanged and still high even after propensity score matching analysis, irrespective of types of AMI and revascularization methods. In conclusion, more evidence-based medical and advanced procedural managements were applied for patients with AMI-HF in 2008 than in 1998. However the incidence and in-hospital mortality of AMI-HF patients were not significantly changed between the two time points.