AMSTERDAM, Sep 01 (Reuters Health) - An international panel of experts has changed the clinical and diagnostic definition of myocardial infarction (MI).

At a joint consensus conference, representatives of the American College of Cardiology and the European Society of Cardiology noted that current technology can detect areas of myocardial necrosis under 1 g in weight. Such a small infarct has been labeled severe, stable, or unstable angina pectoris, but can now be accurately and reliably labeled as a small MI, the conference participants decided, if a blood test is positive for cardiac troponin or creatine kinase-MB.

"It should be appreciated that the proposed modification of the definition of MI may be associated with consequences for the patient with respect to psychological status, life insurance, professional career, as well as driving and pilot licenses," the authors of the consensus document note.

The report was introduced here this week at the European Society of Cardiology's annual meeting in Amsterdam. It will appear in the September issues of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and the European Heart Journal.

The authors acknowledge that using new, more sensitive definitions of MI will likely cause confusion for epidemiologists by causing MI incidence rates to rise while at the same time causing MI mortality rates to fall. But "this would not be a valid reason to hold on to old definitions of MI which no longer reflect current scientific thinking," they write.

The increase in MI incidence brought on by the new definition is likely to promote better secondary prevention "and hopefully reduce health care costs in the future," the panel notes.

(From ReutersHealth)