Myocardial infarction in young women.

This study of 24 women under age 40 years with myocardial infarction demonstrates that even in young women myocardial infarction is most commonly due to coronary atherosclerotic heart disease. Other causes of coronary occlusion were documented in 17% of these patients, indicating that these lesser causes of myocardial infarction are more common in young women than in older persons or in young men. In those patients with coronary atherosclerosis one or more significant risk factors could usually, but not always, be documented. The clinical manifestation of the coronary occlusion in the study group was not unlike its manifestation in groups of different ages or sex, or both.