Mortality of patients with acute coronary syndromes still remains high: a follow-up study of 1188 consecutive patients admitted to a university hospital.

Based on randomized clinical trials, mortality of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) has been considered to be relatively low. The prognosis of clinical presentations of ACS in real-life patient cohorts has not been well documented. The aim of this study was to evaluate actual clinical outcome across the whole spectrum of ACS in a series of unselected prospectively collected consecutive patients from a defined geographical region, all admitted to one university hospital. A total of 1188 patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-ST-elevation MI (NSTEMI) or unstable angina pectoris (UA) were included. Results. In-hospital mortality was 9.6%, 13% and 2.6% (P<0.001) and mortality at a median follow-up of 10 months 19%, 27% and 12% (P<0.001), for the three ACS categories, respectively. In multivariate Cox regression analysis age, diabetes mellitus type 1, diuretic use at admission, creatinine level, lower systolic blood pressure, STEMI and NSTEMI ACS category were associated with higher mortality during follow-up. In an unselected patient cohort, short-term mortality of MI patients, especially those classified as NSTEMI, still was high despite increasing use of proven treatment modalities.