Table 1.

Traditional cardiovascular risk factors in “young” vs. “old” patients with myocardial infarction.

Traditional Cardiovascular Risk Factor	“Young” Patients	“Old” Patients
Arterial hypertension	Reduced prevalence of hypertension in younger STEMI patients (<45 years), compared to older ones [14] The most important risk factor for recurrent cardiovascular events in the younger group [15] Independent risk factor for multivessel disease in younger ACS patients (≤45 years) with a poor outcome [17]	Older STEMI patients (>45 years) had higher prevalence of arterial hypertension [14] Untreated hypertension was lower in those between 55 and 70 years compared to younger patients (<55 years) [16]
Smoking	In STEMI patients, smoking was shown to be the most prevalent risk factor (<45 years) [19] Strong predictor of future MI in younger patients [20] Young AMI patients (18-44 years) had higher rates of smoking [21,22]	Rates of current smokers were lower in the older CAD group (>65 years) [20] The correlation of water pipe smoking and first AMI was lower in the older group (>45 years) compared to younger one [22]
Diabetes mellitus	Type 2 DM was one of the common risk factors in young AMI patients (≤40 years) [25] Diabetes was linked to increased long-term all cause and cardiovascular mortality in younger AMI patients (<50 years) [26] The strongest predictor of ACS in women ≤ 45 years of age, with a sixfold increase in risk [28]	In older ACS women (63-64 years) diabetes was more prevalent than in the younger group (<45 years) [28]
Obesity	Obesity was along with cigarette smoking, hyperlipidaemia, and family history of CAD associated with a higher risk of developing AMI in young patients (<55 years) [30]	Older patients with AMI (>40 years) presented a lower body weight compared to the younger group (mean 79.7 kg vs 85.9 kg) [31]
Dyslipidaemia	Low HDLc was frequent in young smokers ACS people (18-44 years) [34] Type IIb hyperlipidaemia and isolated hypertriglyceridemia were linked to a more than twofold increased risk of a CV event (<50 years)	Older individuals are more likely to take statins, because of past cardiovascular disease, thus presenting lower levels of LDLc compared to younger one [33]
Gender	Female sex is an independent predictor of 30-day mortality with a fivefold increased risk of death compared to male in younger patients [38] Young women (35-54 years) presented a larger comorbidity burden than young men [42]	Women with AMI and ≥65 years presented a higher readmission rate compared to male ones [43]
Family history	Young AMI patients (<55 years) were more likely to have a family history of early CAD [20,30,36,47,48]	Older patients (>50 years) presented less family history of CAD compared to younger ones (21.4% vs 10.4%) [47]

AMI, acute myocardial infarction; ACS, acute coronary syndrome; CAD, coronary artery disease; CV, cardiovascular; DM, diabetes mellitus; HDLc, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; LDLc, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; MI, myocardial infarction; STEMI, ST-elevation myocardial infarction.