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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The moments after a heart attack are crucial to patient survival, but the life and death battle isnt over for those who live through the incident.
In the past 25 years, the risk of sudden cardiac death following a heart attack has declined 40 percent; however, a new study reveals the risk of sudden cardiac death is highest in the first month after an attack.
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Researchers at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., examined the medical records of 2,997 people who suffered a heart attack between 1970 and 2005. The medical records spanned an average of almost five years. Within that time, 24 percent of the patients died from sudden cardiac death. More than 1 percent died 30 days after their heart attack. That rate is four times higher than researchers expected. In addition, the patients who developed heart failure had a 2.5 percent higher risk of sudden cardiac death within 30 days of heart attack and each year thereafter.
Pinpointing which patients are at risk for this complication is difficult, researchers say. A risk assessment is currently given shortly after a heart attack, but factors like heart failure or recurrent ischemia can occur in the weeks following the episode.
Among 30-day survivors, the risk of sudden cardiac death declines rapidly, but it is markedly increased by the occurrence of heart failure during follow-up, study authors wrote. This underscores the importance of continued surveillance of patients after myocardial infarction and the dynamic nature of risk stratification.
SOURCE: JAMA, 2008:300[17]:2022-2029
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