Long-Term Clinical Outcomes According to Previous Manifestations of Atherosclerotic Disease (from the FAST-MI 2010 Registry)

The prognosis of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has notably improved in the past 20 years. Using the French Registry of ST-Elevation and Non-ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction (FAST-MI) 2010 registry, we investigated whether previous manifestations of atherosclerotic disease (i.e., previous MI, or a history of any form of atherosclerotic disease) are at truly increased risk compared with those in whom AMI is the first manifestation of the disease. FAST-MI 2010 is a nationwide French registry including 3,079 patients with AMI, among whom 1,062 patients had a history of cardiovascular atherosclerotic disease and 498 patients had a history of MI. Overall, patients with a history of atherosclerotic disease (or MI) were older compared with patients without known cardiovascular disease (71 ± 13 vs 63 ± 14 years) and had higher cardiovascular risk profiles and co-morbidities. Using fully adjusted Cox multivariate analysis, previous manifestations of atherosclerotic disease were associated with higher 3-year mortality (hazard ratio 1.80, 95% confidence interval 1.40 to 2.31; p <0.001) as history of previous MI alone (hazard ratio 1.32, 95% confidence interval 1.00 to 1.73; p = 0.048). Similar results were found in patients discharged alive. In conclusion, previous cardiovascular atherosclerotic disease represents 1/3 of patients with AMI and are strongly associated with worse long-term clinical outcomes. Intensive follow-up and therapy should be encouraged in this high-risk population.