Impact of elevated systolic arterial pulmonary pressure on the total mortality rate after acute myocardial infarction in the elderly

Reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is associated with increased mortality after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, the prognostic impact of elevated systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP) in the very elderly patients after AMI is lacking. We aimed to study the impact of elevated sPAP on one- and five-year all-cause mortality after AMI in very elderly patients, 80 years of age and older. Of a total number of 353 patients (≥ 80 years) who were hospitalized with acute coronary syndrome, 162 patients presenting with AMI and with available data of sPAP on echocardiography were included and followed-up for 5 years. The survival analyses were performed using Cox-Regression models adjusted for conventional risk factors including LVEF. Altogether 66 of 162 patients (41%) had ST-segment elevation MI, and 121 (75%) of patients were treated with percutaneous coronary intervention in the acute phase. Echocardiography during the admission revealed that 78 patients (48%) had a LVEF ≤ 45% and 66 patients (41%) had a sPAP ≥ 40 mmHg. After one and five years of follow-up, 23% (n = 33) and 53% (n = 86) of patients died, respectively. A multivariable Cox-Regression analysis showed that the elevated sPAP (≥ 40 mmHg) was an independent predictor of increased mortality in both one and five years after AMI; HR of 2.63 (95%, CI 1.19–5.84, P 0.017) and HR of 2.08 (95%, CI 1.25–3.44, P 0.005) respectively, whereas LVEF ≤ 45% did not show any statistically significant impact, neither on one- nor on five-year mortality (HR 1.3, 95% CI 0.6–2.9, p = 0.469) and (HR 1.4, 95% CI 0.8–2.4, p = 0.158), respectively. Elevated sPAP was an independent risk factor for one- and five-year all-cause mortality after AMI in very elderly patients and sPAP seems to be a better prognostic predictor for all-cause mortality than LVEF. The risk of all-cause mortality after AMI increased with increasing sPAP.