Background: To the best of our knowledge, the association of physical impairment and cognitive decline has never been investigated in frail patients with acute myocardial infarction.
Aim: The aim of our study is to assess the correlation between physical and cognitive dysfunction in frail patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).
Methods: We examined consecutive frail patients with first STEMI treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). All patients were evaluated via Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and 5-m gait speed test after PPCI.
Results: A total of 871 frail patients with suspected STEMI were admitted and 301 patients successfully completed the study. We found that the gait speed significantly correlated with the MMSE score (r: 0.771; p: < 0.001). The independent effects on MMSE score were confirmed in a linear multivariate analysis.
Conclusions: Taken together, our findings indicate that an assessment of both cognitive and physical conditions should be included in the comprehensive geriatric evaluation of hospitalized older STEMI patients.
Keywords: Cognitive decline; Frailty; Gait speed test; STEMI.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.