heart attack patients

(McGill University) Patients discontinuing statin medication following an acute myocardial infarction increase their risk of dying over the next year, say researchers at McGill University and the McGill University Health Center.

Their study was published in a recent issue of the European Heart Journal.

Acute kidney injury, a common complication of cardiac surgery during hospitalization, is linked to increased and prolonged risk of death in heart attack patients who have been discharged from the hospital, according to a study published in Archives of Internal Medicine.

Heart attack patients arriving at hospitals at night, weekends or holidays were slightly less likely to receive emergency angioplasty or receive it in a timely fashion.

Death rates were similar for those arriving during regular and off-hours.

Depressed heart attack patients have a higher risk for sudden death in the months following a heart attack. Now researchers have found that the risk continues for many years.

In the five years following a heart attack, 106 patients died. Of those, 62 had been diagnosed with depression, while 44 had not.

Up to 20 percent of patients taking aspirin to lower the risk of suffering a second cerebrovascular event do not have an antiplatelet response from aspirin, the effect thought to produce the protective effect, researchers at the University at Buffalo have shown.

Up to 20 percent of patients taking aspirin to lower the risk of suffering a second cerebrovascular event do not have an antiplatelet response from aspirin, the effect thought to produce the protective effect, researchers at the University at Buffalo have shown.