FEATURED EDITORIAL

Evolution of the definition of myocardial infarction: what are the implications of a new universal definition?

Harvey D White

Green Lane Cardiovascular Service, Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand

Correspondence to:
Professor Harvey White, Green Lane Cardiovascular Service, Auckland City Hospital, Private Bag 92024, Auckland 1030, New Zealand; harveyw@adhb.govt.nz

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Over many years doctors have used differing definitions as to what constitutes a myocardial infarction (MI). Hospitals in the same town and doctors in the same hospital have used differing definitions. Patients with similar MIs may be either reassured or frightened, have four or five medications or none, be able to drive or fly or not, based on the whim of which doctor may be on call on the particular day that an atheromatous plaque ruptures or fissures. Similarly, health statistics have been bedevilled by differing definitions. In 2000, the criteria for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction were redefined by a consensus group of the European Society of Cardiology and the American College of Cardiology.¹

The new criteria recognised the fact that neither the clinical history nor the ECG has adequate sensitivity or specificity. The ECG is the prime investigation for determining eligibility for the administration of fibrinolytic therapy. For . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Giugliano, R. P., Braunwald, E. (2009). The Year in Non-ST-Segment Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome.. J Am Coll Cardiol 54: 1544-1555 [Full Text]  
• Muehlschlegel, J. D., Perry, T. E., Liu, K.-Y., Nascimben, L., Fox, A. A., Collard, C. D., Avery, E. G., Aranki, S. F., D'Ambra, M. N., Shernan, S. K., Body, S. C., for the CABG Genomics Investigators, (2009). Troponin is superior to electrocardiogram and creatinine kinase MB for predicting clinically significant myocardial injury after coronary artery bypass grafting. Eur Heart J 30: 1574-1583 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Hackett, D. (2009). British Cardiovascular Society: international guideline review. Heart 95: 247-247 [Full Text]  
• Hall, A S, Barth, J H (2009). Universal definition of myocardial infarction. Heart 95: 247-249 [Full Text]  
• Avendano, M., Soerjomataram, I. (2008). Monitoring trends in acute coronary syndromes: can we use hospital admission registries?. Heart 94: 1524-1525 [Full Text]