Current management of acute myocardial infarction: Experience from the Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry

SummaryThe Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry (KAMIR) was the first nationwide, population-based, multicenter data collection registry in Korea designed to track outcomes of patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The registry included 51 community and teaching hospitals and contained data on 14,870 patients through January 2008. Patients with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction had a higher prevalence of co-morbidities and worse outcome than patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction after being discharged from hospital, emphasizing the need for aggressive outpatient management of these patients. Risk factors and prognosis after AMI were similar to those in other registries from the West. A number of innovative approaches have been implemented in numerous studies generated by the KAMIR and have set standards of care for AMI in the Korean population.