Abstract
To determine the natural history of patients with a total occlusion of a single coronary artery, we searched the Duke Databank for Cardiovascular Disease to find all patients who underwent a first coronary angiogram >2 days after a symptomatic myocardial infarction between 1969 and 1994. Patients who underwent angiography >30 days after the acute event had a low risk of death in the first year (3%), and a proximal left anterior descending coronary occlusion did not confer substantially higher risk of death (4%). Patients undergoing angiography <30 days after the acute event had a higher mortality (5%), especially those with proximal left anterior descending occlusion (10%). The time from the acute event to angiography was a predictor of death (p= 0.04). Despite low 1-year mortality rates, patients with total occlusion of an isolated coronary vessel treated medically had substantial mortality, myocardial infarction, and revascularization rates over a long-term follow- up period.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 393-399 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | American Heart Journal |
Volume | 133 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 1997 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine