THE FEMALE SEX IS AN INDEPENDENT PROGNOST IC FACTOR FOR MORTALITY IN THE ACUTE-PHASE OF MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION

BACKGROUND: TO assess the effect of female gender on mortality after a cute myocardial infarction (AMI), we studied a cohort of 876 consecuti ve patients, being women 253 of them (28.8%), admitted to the Intensiv e Care Unit (ICU) because of a first AMI, from September 1992 to Octob er 1995. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We compared the clinical characteristic s, the complications and the treatment in both sexes. We estimated the relative risk using logistic regression, being the sex, the independe nt variable and dependent variables age, history of hypertension and d iabetes, AMI location and thrombolytic treatment. RESULTS: The age was higher and the history of hypertension and diabetes more frequent. Th e AMI location was less often inferior. Women received fibrinolytic tr eatment less frequently in women than in men. The mortality in the ICU was higher in the women (29.2 vs, 13.5% in the men) and, after adjust ing for the previous factors the relative risk was 1.51 (95% confidenc e interval of 1.01-2.26), CONCLUSIONS: In the population studied, the female gender is an independent risk factor for early mortality in the AMI.