New York, Nov 17 (IANS): It may defy common sense but an Indian-origin cardiologist has found that patients who experience a certain type of heart attack during hospitalisation face greater risk of death than outpatients.

The heart condition the researchers focused is called ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

Prashant Kaul from University of North Carolina found that patients developing inpatient-onset STEMI had more than three-fold greater in-hospital mortality than those with outpatient-onset STEMI (33.6 percent vs 9.2 percent). STEMI is a certain pattern on an electrocardiogram following a heart attack.

"The question of how to improve outcomes and define optimum treatment in hospitalised patients who experience a STEMI is an area that merits more attention and concern," Kaul noted.

"Although there have been improvements in treatment times and clinical outcomes in outpatients who have onset of STEMI, few initiatives have focused on optimising care of hospitalised patients with onset of STEMI after admission," he explained.

This study included an analysis of STEMIs occurring between 2008 and 2011 as identified in the California State Inpatient Database.

A total of 62,021 STEMIs were identified in 303 hospitals.

Patients with inpatient-onset STEMI were less likely to be discharged home (33.7 percent vs 69.4 percent), the findings showed.

The study appeared in JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.