Criteria for early discharge after acute myocardial infarction: validation in a community hospital

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
All patients admitted to a community hospital coronary care unit during an 18-mo. period were studied to validate previously reported criteria for early hospital discharge after myocardial infarction. Factors present during the first 4 hospital days, which predict complications requiring urgent medical attention, were classified as either urgent or prognostic. Patients whose initial 4 days were marked by either no complications (81 patients) or prognostic complications (51 patients) are described. Only 1 patient in the group of 81 patients had a subsequent urgent complication. Four of 55 patients had late urgent complications. Persistent sinus tachycardia occurred during the first 4 days in all 4 of 55 patients. Early hospital discharge would be feasible in the group with neither urgent nor prognostic complications. Further study of persistent sinus tachycardia is required to improve its predictive ability.