INTRODUCTION The scales available to predict death and complications after acute coronary syndrome include angiographic studies and serum biomarkers that are not within reach of services with limited resources. Such services need specific and sensitive instruments to evaluate risk using accessible resources and information.

OBJECTIVE Develop a scale to estimate and stratify the risk of intrahospital death in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

METHODS An analytical observational study was conducted in a universe of 769 patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction who were admitted consecutively to the Camilo Cienfuegos Provincial Hospital in Sancti Spíritus Province, Cuba, from January 2013 to March 2018. The fi nal study cohort included 667 patients, excluding 102 due to branch blocks, atrial fibrillation, drugs that prolong the QT interval, low life expectancy or history of myocardial infarction. The demographic variables of age, sex, skin color, classic cardiovascular risk factors, blood pressure, heart rate, blood glucose level, in addition to duration and dispersion of the QT interval with and without correction, left ventricular ejection fraction, and glomerular filtration rate were included in the analysis. Patients were categorized according to the Killip-Kimball Classification for degree of heart failure. A risk scale was constructed, the predictive ability of which was evaluated using the detectability index associated with an receiver-operator curve.

RESULTS Seventy-seven patients died (11.5%). Mean blood glucose levels were higher among the deceased, while their systolic and diastolic blood pressure, left ventricular ejection fraction, and glomerular filtration rate were lower than those participants discharged alive. Relevant variables included in the scale were systolic blood pressure, Killip-Kimball class, cardiorespiratory arrest, glomerular filtration rate, corrected QT interval dispersion rate, left ventricular ejection fraction, and blood glucose levels. The variable with the best predictive ability was cardiorespiratory arrest, followed by a blood glucose level higher than 11.1 mmol/L. The scale demonstrated a great predictive ability with a detectability index of 0.92.

CONCLUSIONS The numeric scale we designed estimates and stratifies risk of death during hospitalization for patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and has good metric properties for predictive ability and calibration.

KEYWORDS ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, mortality, risk assessment, Cuba