Identification and Treatment of Low-Risk Patients after Acute Myocardial Infarction and Coronary-Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

RESEARCH concerning the management of acute myocardial infarction and coronary-artery bypass graft surgery during the past two decades has emphasized high-risk patients. However, efforts to identify patients who are at high risk for reinfarction and death have also allowed identification of low-risk patients (defined below). Low-risk patients constitute between one third and one half of the population of patients who have had an acute myocardial infarction and nearly three quarters of those who have undergone coronary-artery bypass surgery. Since approximately 800,000 patients in this country survive an acute myocardial infarction and another 180,000 undergo coronary-artery bypass surgery each year, the.