The risk of patients who have suffered a heart attack having a second attack after being discharged from hospital is being underestimated, an international study led by the University of Edinburgh in the UK has suggested.

As part of the research, scientists examined data taken from the Global Registry of Coronary Events, which includes more than 46,000 heart attack patients from a total of 115 hospitals in 14 countries.

Published in the September edition of the Nature Clinical Practice, the results of the study contradict assumptions that patients who have been completely - rather than partially - blocked are most at risk after being discharged from hospital.

"While patients with full heart attacks were more likely to have another heart attack or die within the first 15 days, the risk for those whose heart attack was originally considered not as severe overtook the full heart attack group after 26 days," web resource Eurekalert notes.

Professor Keith Fox from the University of Edinburgh, who is due to present the findings at the European Society of Cardiology in Munich, Germany next week, said the results are concerning as it may indicate that patient risk is being misjudged.

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