Acute myocardial infarction is a manifestation of atherosclerosis which may be fatal. In-hospital and short-term mortality rates after an acute myocardial infarction have declined in the past few decades. However, although long-term mortality has decreased, it remains unacceptably high. This review paper summarises the non-pharmacological interventions (smoking cessation, physical activity, nutrition, and psychosocial intervention) and pharmacological approaches (antiplatelet and lipid-lowering therapy, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors, beta-blockers, and glucose-lowering drugs) to secondary prevention after a myocardial infarction. The provision of secondary prevention services is established through cardiac rehabilitation, which consists of several discussed components. Finally, we discuss the quality indicators for long-term care after an acute myocardial infarction.

2nd Department of Medicine Department of Cardiovascular Medicine General University Hospital Prague 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University 12808 Prague Czech Republic

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