Introduction:

Cardiovascular diseases account for the largest number of deaths worldwide each year; reason why they are considered a real scourge for humanity. Ischemic cardiomyopathy ranks high among them as it exhibits the highest global mortality rates.

Objective:

To characterize deceased patients diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction.

Method:

A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out with 158 patients who died from acute myocardial infarction in the Hospital Provincial Universitario Arnaldo Milián Castro of Santa Clara, Villa Clara (Cuba), from 2013 to 2018.

Results:

Males (83; 52.5%) between 70 and 79 years of age (66; 41.8%) predominated. A total of 104 deceased (65.8%) presented at least four risk factors with individual predominance of high blood pressure (122; 77.2%), diabetes mellitus (108; 68.4%) and dyslipidemia (99; 62.7%). The clinical presentation was typical in both sexes (male 39 and female 55), large anterior wall myocardial infarction prevailed, and thrombolysis was performed in 51 cases (32.3%) before the first 12 hours of onset of symptoms. Left ventricular dysfunction was the most frequent complication (42.4%). No necropsy was performed on 40 cases, which did not allow for the assessment of diagnostic coincidence; however, there was a total coincidence in 86 deaths (54,4%) and a partial coincidence in 25 (15,8%). About 2774 years were not lived and a descending time line was attained.

Conclusions:

Mortality from acute myocardial infarction showed a slight downward trend in the number of deaths reported by death certificate, with an average of 25.2 years of life potentially lost.

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