Effect of Hurricane Katrina on incidence of acute myocardial infarction in New Orleans three years after the storm.

To detect a long-term increase in the incidence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) after Hurricane Katrina and to investigate the pertinent contributing factors, we conducted a single-center retrospective cohort observational study. The patients admitted with AMI to Tulane University Hospital in the 2 years before Katrina and the 3 years after the hospital reopened were identified from the hospital medical records. The pre- and post-Katrina groups were compared for prespecified demographic and clinical data. In the 3-year post-Katrina group, 418 admissions (2.0%) for AMI occurred of a total census of 21,092 patients compared to 150 (0.7%) of a census of 21,079 in the 2-year pre-Katrina group (p