Background: Epidemiological evidence shows that among women the incidence of ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION (AMI), risk factors of cardiovascular disease, and mortality rate of AMI are different. The objective of this study was to compare the baseline characteristics, risk factors, medical care, and mortality of AMI between women and men.Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, we examined data from medical charts and administrative files of patients that were hospitalized with AMI between 1994 and 2003 in Birjand hospitals. Questionnaires were completed by two educated nurses under the supervision of a cardiologist and the data were analyzed with SPSS software.Results: From 918 patients, 71.9% were male (M) and 28.1% were female (F). The women were older than the men (mean age 65.62±10.56yr in F vs. 58.98±12.11yr in M) and had a greater incidence of hypertension (50% in F vs. 24.6% in M, p<0.001) and diabetes mellitus (17% in F vs. 9.8% in M, p<0.006), but smoking was more common in the men (13.7% in F vs. 36.3% in M, p<0.001). Intra-hospital mortality was higher in the women but not significantly (10.4% in F vs. 8.6% in M, p=0.42). Fasting blood sugar (FBS), cholesterol level, and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were significantly higher amongst the women.Conclusion: Women with AMI had older age and higher incidence of diabetes and hypertension. Thus designing interventional programs for reducing these risk factors by education in women is needed.

Background: Human enteroviruses (EVs) may have a role as a possible risk factor in the pathogenesis of MI. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of enterovirus genomic RNA in peripheral blood samples of patients with ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION (MI).Methods: We investigated the presence of enterovirus genomic RNA in the peripheral blood of 115 patients with ACUTE MI hospitalized in the Coronary Care Unit of Imam Reza and Ghaem University Hospitals (Mashhad, Iran) by RT-PCR using the virus specific primers.Results: The subjects' mean (±SD) age was 63.5 (±9.4) years (range: 38-82) and 38.3 % of the subjects were female. Of 115 patient specimens, 3 (2.6%) were positive in RT-PCR.Conclusion: The prevalence of enterovirus in MI patients is considerable. More investigations are needed to determine the causal role of enteroviruses in MI.

Background: The chronobiology of the ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION (AMI) is an interesting matter for recognition of the biological mechanism that might trigger AMI. The present study was aimed to investigate the circadian, seasonal and circannual variation of the AMI occurrence with solar, lunar, and Christian months.Patients and Method: A retrospective study of 1147 cases with diagnosis of AMI was conducted. All the cases were admitted to the coronary care unit of Shahid Beheshti and Yahyanejad Hospital in Babol, north of Iran, between 1990 to 2000. The date was extracted by the day and months of diagnosis based on the solar, lunar and Christian calender from hospital charts. The Chi-square test was used to test the uniformity of the observed frequencies of AMI onset in the different months based on solar, lunar Christian and the days of the week.Results: The result showed that there was a significant trend toward higher rate of MI at the beginning of the week, on Saturday (18.1%) and the least (12.3%) on Fridays. Although, the observed frequency of AMI has tendency to be higher in Ordibehesht of solar month and Shaban in lunar month than other months, the monthly-variation was not statistically significant (P>0.05). However, there was a significant difference in MI occurrence in Christian months with the highest peak in November (P<0.05). Also, we did not find a significant seasonal variation of AMI where 26.2%, 32.1%, 26.8% and 23.9% of MI occurred in spring, summer, fall, and winter respectively (P>0.05).Conclusion: Our result indicated a significant day of week variation in AMI occurrence with higher peak on Saturdays and full moon phase of lunar months.

Background and Aim: ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION (AMI) is one of the most common diseases today. One of the important issues which are under attention of searchers is to diagnose AMI accurately using paraclinic methods. The aim of this study was to determine the level of two important biochemical markers of AMI cardiac troponin I and T. Materials and Methods: This study was a descriptive-analytic study, which was performed on 100 patients in whom-according to criteria of WHO and references-diagnosing of AMI is definite, in second day of admission in CCU, cardiac markers including troponin I using qualitative immunochromatography assay and cardiac troponin T using third generation cTnT detection assay (CARDIAC) and also total creatine kinase (CK) was measured and record for patients. This information was recorded in a special data sheet and than analyzed by using SPSS, Chi-Square and Hest. Results: Mean age of patients was 59.73 ± 12.57.38 patients were women and 62 of them were men. 83 of patients ( 83%) had positive troponin I, 97 (97%) had values of troponin T more than 0.1 mg/ml (indicating AMI) and also 93 patients (93%) had total CK value more than normal. Conclusion: Troponin T is a more sensitive marker for diagnosis of AMI comparing with other cardiac markers of AMI in 24 h after AMI.

Introduction: Ventricular rupture following MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION (M.I) is a serious clinical problem with a high mortality. The aim of this study was to present a case with this disorder.Case Report: A 73 year-old man with left ventricular rupture and cardiac tamponade following MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION was managed successfully by emergency surgery. The procedure was accomplished with the use of cardiopulmonary by pass. A large PTFE patch was sutured according to the Nunez technique. Patient survived during a mean follow-up of 12 months.