American College of Cardiology

Antman et al., Management of Patients With STEMI: Executive Summary
J Am Coll Cardiol 2004;44:671-719

ACC/AHA Guidelines for the Management of Patients With ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction—Executive Summary

A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Revise the 1999 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction)

Developed in Collaboration With the Canadian Cardiovascular Society


Pathology

A. Epidemiology

STEMI continues to be a significant public health problem in industrialized countries and is becoming an increasingly significant problem in developing countries (4). Although the exact incidence is difficult to ascertain, using first-listed and secondary hospital discharge data, there were 1,680,000 unique discharges for ACS in 2001 (5). Applying the conservative estimate of 30% of the ACS patients who have STEMI from the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction-4 [NRMI-4] (5a), we estimate 500,000 STEMI events per year in the U.S. This writing committee strongly endorses several public health campaigns that are likely to contribute to a reduction in the incidence of and fatality from STEMI in the future and additional research of new strategies for the management of STEMI patients in the community (6–13).