Myocardial Infarction Mortality Rates Assessed

Myocardial infarction represents the largest segment of all ischemic heart disease, according to new research from Datamonitor. This also found that: in all countries the percentages declined with age in both males and females (very often this decline is over 10%); the mortality rate in males is much greater than in females, with Japan, Singapore and Australia being notable exceptions; and in Europe the percentage of ischemic heart disease mortality due to MI has been declining in recent years, with this pattern repeated in other countries from different regions, although not nearly as consistently.

There may be a variety of explanations for these phenomena, according to Datamonitor. It notes that variations in diagnosis techniques may explain the country to country differences, and improved MI therapy could be the reason for the declining percentage trend of this disease in Europe. And a physiological difference between the sexes may explain the male/female variations.

The variation between the sets of figures also reflects the level of health care and treatments available for MI, which are so important in reducing mortality from the disease, the study adds.