Studies reveal that elderly adults with heart disease are less likely to receive aggressive treatment, than younger patients. In response, recent treatment guidelines have emphasized the fact that age alone should not determine whether emergency patients get blood-clot-dissolving drugs or invasive procedures.

However, the new study of patients at 443 U.S. hospitals, found that the older patients were, the less likely they were to receive these therapies -- even when their overall health was taken into account.

Researchers led by Dr. Karen P. Alexander, of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, document the results in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology