The majority of young adults who experience a first-time myocardial infarction (MI) may not meet statin eligibility based on current guidelines, according to the Partners YOUNG-MI Registry study presented November 14, at American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2017, and simultaneously published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Avinainder Singh, MBBS, et al., looked at 1,475 individuals with a median age of 45. Results show that only 724 (49%) and 430 (29%) patients would have met criteria for statin eligibility based on the 2013 ACC/AHA guideline on the treatment of blood cholesterol and the 2016 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations for statin use in primary prevention in a cohort of adults who experience a first-time MI at a young age, respectively.

Further, according to the authors, this finding was more pronounced in women, in whom 184 (63%) were not eligible for statins by either guideline, compared with 549 (46%) of men (P < 0.001).

The authors conclude that their findings suggest that current guidelines may fail to identify at-risk young individuals, and that moving forward, re-calibration of risk scores or development of novel risk scores to more accurately estimate cardiovascular risk in young adults is needed.