Publication:

Clinical and echocardiographic features of elderly patients with myocardial infarction

Background Acute myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Elderly patients comprise a growing proportion of the MI population. We sought to characterize the clinical, anamnestic, laboratory, and echocardiographic data of elderly MI patients (>70 years).

Methods We studied 104 patients with acute MI admitted to our regional cardiology center from January 2024 to November 2025. We divided the study population into two groups: 46 patients >70 years and 58 patients ≤70 years. We compared the clinical data, laboratory results, echocardiographic data, and results of coronary angiography between the study groups using non-parametric statistics.

Results Elderly MI patients presented a higher proportion of females (45.7% vs. 15.1%, p=0.001), lower rates of obesity (23.9% vs. 44.8%, p=0.038), and reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (67.8 vs. 79.8 ml/min/1.73m², p<0.05). Elderly MI patients presented reduced left ventricular dimensions in echocardiographic data but comparable ejection fractions. Elderly MI patients presented comparable vessel involvement in the results of coronary angiography but underwent less frequent stenting (41.3% vs. 63.7%, p=0.029) and bypass grafting (47.8% vs. 22.4%, p=0.011).

Conclusions Despite having a similar coronary pathology elderly MI patients have different clinical and demographic data with different revascularization approaches. These findings emphasize the need for age-specific diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to optimize outcomes in this growing patient population.