Mortality pattern among initial survivors of acute myocardial infarction using a life-table technique.

The 5-year pattern of mortality among 475 immediate survivors of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (mean age 65 years on entry) is described by a life-table technique. The risk of death was highest during the early part of the follow-up. After 3-4 years, the prognostic influence of the AMI seemed to be overshadowed by the age effect. Special attention was paid to the incidence of sudden death, a fictive elimination of which was shown to reduce the risk of death by 9-22% during the different years of the investigation period. The absolute number of sudden deaths was highest during the early part of the follow-up period but the relative importance of this mode of death was approximately the same during the entire 5-year period after the AMI.