Objectives: To clarify the importance of clinical features and changes in the first electrocardiogram in 28-day and 1-year mortality in patients with diabetes.
Material and methods: Men and women of Kaunas city aged 25-64 years with the first-ever myocardial infarction during 1983-1992 and with the first electrocardiogram were enrolled in the study. Electrocardiograms were coded using the WHO MONICA Project Protocol criteria and the Minnesota Code. The Kaunas Ischemic Heart Disease Register was the source of data; deaths from ischemic heart disease were identified via death register.
Results: Diabetes was diagnosed in 124 patients: 65 (52.4%) men and 59 (47.6%) women. The 28-day (P=0.01) and 1-year mortality rates (P<0.001) were higher in diabetic than in nondiabetic patients with myocardial infarction. Among diabetic patients, who died during 28 days or one year, myocardial infarction was more often complicated by acute heart failure, and changes in ECG were more often detected than among those who were alive. Female gender (RR=30.2, P=0.02) was associated with an increased risk of death from a first-ever myocardial infarction during the first 28 days, while acute heart failure (RR=4.48, P=0.01) and anterior location of Q wave in the first ECG (RR=2.71, P=0.04) increased the risk of death from ischemic heart disease during one year after a first-ever myocardial infarction.
Conclusions: Acute heart failure and Q-wave in derivations of the first electrocardiogram reflecting anterior site of myocardial infarction increased the risk of death from ischemic heart disease during the first year, and female gender--during the first 28 days in diabetic patients with myocardial infarction.