[Source: Reuters Health] – The incidence of one type of heart attack has steadily decreased in the US since 1996, regardless of gender or ethnicity, to the lowest rates in years, according to a new study.
In recent years, mortality in patients with the type of heart attack, known as acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction, “has decreased substantially in developed countries,” Dr. Mohammad Reza Movahed, of the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center, Tucson, and colleagues write in their study.
Acute ST-elevation myocardial infarctions, which afflict about half a million in the U.S. each year, result from prolonged blockage of one of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. The decline may be due to treatments as well as prevention of risk factors such as high cholesterol, according to the authors.
For more information: One type of heart attack seen on decline in U.S.