Predictors of acute myocardial infarction mortality in hypertensive patients treated in primary care.

Summary, in English

Objective. To explore risk factors for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) mortality in hypertensive patients treated in primary care. Design. Community-based cohort study. Setting. Hypertension outpatient clinic in primary health care. Subjects. Patients who consecutively underwent an annual follow-up during 1992-1993 (n =894; 377 men and 517 women). Methods. All events of fatal AMI were ascertained by record linkage to the National Mortality Register to December 31, 2002. Gender-specific predictors for AMI mortality were analysed by Cox regression. Main outcome measure. AMI mortality. Results. During a mean follow-up of 8.7 years 32 cases (8.5%) of fatal AMI were observed in men and 31 cases (6.0%) were observed in women. Most important predictors for AMI mortality in men were microalbuminuria (HR 3.8, CI 1.8-8.0) and left ventricular hypertrophy (HR 4.0, CI 1.7-9.4), whilst in women type 2 diabetes (HR 4.8, CI 2.4-9.8) was an important predictor. In hypertensive patients without diabetes male gender was associated with high AMI mortality (HR 2.7, CI 1.4-5.3), but in patients with both hypertension and type 2 diabetes the higher risk in men disappeared (HR 0.8, CI 0.4-1.7). Conclusion. Cardiovascular disease risk factors remain strong predictors of AMI mortality in hypertensive patients but with a different pattern in the two genders. Markers of organ damage are more important predictors in men, whereas markers of impaired glucose metabolism are more important predictors in women.