[Heart rupture in myocardial infarction].

During the period 1972-1986. 8.589 adult patients died at the Dr. Josip Kajfes General Hospital in Zagreb. Post mortem examinations were performed in 4.459 patients and 496 cases discovered, which were in keeping with so-called ischaemic heart disease (IHD). Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was found in 322 patients and rupture of the heart (HR) in 64 patients. According to our results IHD and AMI occurred more frequently in persons over 60 years of age, but women were affected on the average some 6 years later than men in all three groups of test subjects. The anterior wall of the left ventricle was the most common site of both AMI and HR. Heart rupture occurred on the average some 3 days after an attack of AMI (average 3.46 days) but this was seen in women a whole day later than in men. The results obtained showed moreover that the mortality rate in patients who died from IHD and AMI over the analysed 15-year period registered a decline, while the mortality rate of patients who died of HR in the same period remained more or less unchanged.