Clinical implications of the new definition of myocardial infarction

Abstract

Historically, there has been tacit agreement as to the meaning of the term “myocardial infarction”. The World Health Organization definition, which has been widely used, requires the presence of two of the following three features: symptoms of myocardial ischaemia, elevation of cardiac marker (enzyme) concentrations in the blood, and a typical electrocardiographic pattern involving the development of Q waves or persistent T wave changes.^w1