Evaluation of circulating total CD34⁺ cells in patients with AMI, SA, and CTRLs. Percentage (A) and absolute number per microliter (B) of circulating CD34⁺ cells in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) at admission, in patients with stable angina pectoris (SA), and in healthy controls (CTRLs). The longitudinal study of patients with AMI (C) shows a decreasing trend of the number per microliter of circulating CD34⁺ cells, which at day 7 is statistically lower than at T0 (P < .001) but higher than that of CTRLs (P < .02) and becomes comparable to that of CTRLs within 60 days. Solid lines represent the median values. In panel C, the CTRLs are shown but not included in the statistical analysis performed by the regression model for repeated measures.