Deaths from severe heart attacks following admission to hospital have nearly halved in six years as a result of advances in medical treatment.

In the largest study of its kind, research led by the University of Edinburgh, analysed hospital treatment and outcomes for 44,372 patients admitted to 113 hospitals in 14 countries with heart attacks or unstable angina (threatened heart attacks).

As well as a significant reduction in death rates, the study published in the Journal of American Medical Association also established a decline in heart failure a progressive disorder when damage to the heart weakens the cardiovascular system and poor heart muscle function causes fluid in the lungs.

This is the first time such findings relating to heart failure, a chronic condition often requiring specialised nursing care in the community, have been made.

In patients admitted with a severe heart attack, where the arteries were completely blocked, death rates reduced from 8.4 to 4.5 per cent. Their risk of heart failure also nearly halved with a reduction from 20 to 11 per cent. For every 1,000 patients presenting themselves to hospital this means 39 fewer death and 90 less patients with new heart failure.

Patients who suffered from severe heart attacks also saw subsequent rates of critical heart failure cardiogenic shock reduce from 7.1 to 4.7 per cent. This is important as 70 per cent of patients with cardiogenic shock die.

Professor Keith Fox, British Heart Foundation professor of cardiology at the University of Edinburgh, said: We know that advances in medical treatments have improved outcomes due to large scale trials of therapies but there has been a substantial gap in knowing how this relates to how new drugs and procedures are being used and implemented in hospitals.

Our study enables us to look at differences in practice in a clinical setting over time and it has reflected significant changes in how
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Contact: Tara Womersley
tara.womersley@ed.ac.uk
44-131-650-9836
University of Edinburgh
1-May-2007