Clinical profile of young patients with acute myocardial infarction in Saudi Arabia

Objective: To define the risk factors and clinical presentations of young patients (≤45 years) who present to King Fahd Hospital of the University (KFHU) with an acute myocardial infarction (MI). Methods and results: A retrospective study was conducted over a 3-year period from January 1999 to December 2001. Sixty-five consecutive cases of acute MI in young patients were admitted to KFHU and were reviewed. The mean age was 40 years (range 29–45), 96.9% were males, 66.2% were from the Indian subcontinent, 23.1% were Saudi nationals and 10.8% were of other nationality. The major risk factor was tobacco use (76.9%), followed by low HDL (52.8%), high LDL (33.8%), diabetes (30.8%), hypertension (18.5%), family history of IHD (15.4%) and hypertriglyceridemia (7.7%). The most common anatomical location of the MI was the anterior wall and 92.3% of the cases were MIs with ST segment elevation. The hospital course was complicated by the development of CHF (4.6%), cardiogenic shock (4.6%), angina post-MI (3.1%), and reinfarction (3.1%). Finally, the hospital mortality rate was 9.2%. Conclusions: The study focuses our attention on the rising incidence of acute MI in young individuals. Smoking was the major risk factor followed by low HDL, high LDL and diabetes. These observations are important for primary prevention of such diseases in Saudi Arabia.