Author Description

Background: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) encompasses acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and unstable angina (UA). It is a global major cause of morbidity and mortality in both the short and long terms. The risk for recurrent ischemic cardiovascular (CV) events and death after ACS depends on patient factors at presentation, revascularization and secondary prevention measures. Of these, ischemic stroke (IS) is a feared and potentially devastating complication that confers suffering for the individual patient and an economic burden on society. ACS and secondary prevention treatment have gone through dramatic improvements during recent decades. These improvements, together with an improved risk factor profile in the general population, have led to lower morbidity and halved mortality. ACS and IS share many risk factors. Most of our knowledge about prognosis and risk of recurrent ischemic events after ACS is based on clinical trials and it is uncertain whether these findings can be translated to the general population. Aims: The study aims were as follows: to estimate the rate, time trends, risk factors and effects on mortality of IS after an AMI during the decades that ACS and secondary prevention treatment improved; to study wether the switch from the antiplatelet agent clopidogrel to ticagrelor influenced post-AMI IS risk in patients treated with PCI, based on data from the SWEDEHEART register; and to estimate the long-term rate of subsequent CV events after ACS in an unselected cohort of ACS patients, based on the ACS-population in the Nurse-based Age- independent Intervention to Limit Evolution of Disease After Acute Coronary Syndrome (NAILED-ACS) study. Methods: In papers I–IV, data from the SWEDEHEART register were merged with the Swedish National Patient Register (NPR) to identify patients with AMI and subsequent ischemic stroke. In paper V, data were obtained from the NAILED-ACS study. Survival analysis with Kaplan–Meier estimates and hazard ratios for risk fact