Cholesterol Talk!

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Research has shown that while the rate of sudden death after a heart attack has declined since the 1980s, the risk during the first 30 days after an attack is still four times higher than in the general population. The findings suggest that this is mostly related to the presence of heart failure.

Current strategies for predicting sudden death after a heart attack use risk factors that are present at the time of the attack and don’t take into account events that may occur later.

Roger and some colleagues from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, studied the risk of sudden death among 2997 residents of Olmsted county who had a heart attack but managed to survive and got discharged from hospital between 1979 and 2005.

There was an improvement in the death toll from a heart attack declined significantly between 1997 and 2005 compared with the period between 1979 and 1987. However, the death rate during the first 30 days remained high at 1.2 percent, roughly four times the rate seen in the general population. After 30 days, the risk was not increased.

The risk of heart failure in the 30 days after a heart attack was 26 percent. Further analysis showed that heart failure was associated with a 4.2-fold increased risk of sudden death. These findings, Roger’s group said, “underscore the importance of continued surveillance” of heart attack patients, and “the importance of evidence-based therapy” for these patients.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association, November 5, 2008.

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