Blood Transfusion
Wu and colleagues studied 78,974 Medicare patients over the age of 65 years who were admitted to the hospital for myocardial infarction. They found that patients whose hematocrit was lower than 30% had a higher mortality rate than patients whose hematocrit was above 30%.

The investigators concluded that blood transfusions were associated with a lower 30-day mortality in elderly patients whose hematocrit on admission was 30% or lower. The information was not the result of a clinical trial but appears to be a useful finding.