In 4 elderly patients, two women aged 94 and 92 and two men aged 98 and 95 years, respectively, acute symptoms were found to be caused by acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The first woman and the two men were treated by stenting and/or percutaneous intervention and recovered fully, but in the second woman, who was hemiplegic following a CVA and had progressive dementia, a palliative treatment course was chosen after extensive consultation with the general practitioner and the next of kin. In elderly patients the outcome after AMI is often worse than in their younger counterparts. On the other hand, treatment decisions in elderly patients are often automatically considered to be difficult, which may result in under-treatment or no treatment at all. This has been referred to as discrimination towards the elderly. Primary angioplasty should not be withheld on the basis of age alone.

Conflict of interest: none declared. Financial support: none declared.