ABSTRACT
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death in older persons. Although
persons older than 65 years comprise 12% of the population (1), approximately 60%
of hospital admissions for acute myocardial infarction (MI) occur in persons older than
65 years of age, and persons older than 75 years of age account for nearly half of these
admissions of patients with MI older than 65 years (2). Not only is the in-hospital
mortality higher in older patients with MI than in younger patients with MI, but the
postdischarge mortality rate is also higher in older persons, with the one-year cardiac
mortality rate of 12% in patients aged 65 to 75 years and 17.6% in patients older than
75 years (3). Approximately two-thirds of these one-year deaths were sudden or related to
a new MI (3). This chapter discusses the management of the older patient after MI.
