title: Clinical significance of ventricular ectopic beats in the early posthospital phase of myocardial infarction.
abstract: The clinical significance of ventricular ectopic beats in the posthospital phase of myocardial infarction was studied in 272 patients aged 65 years or less who were followed up for 1 year after the infarction. Ventricular ectopic beats, identified in 6 hour electrocardiographic tape recordings, obtained before hospital discharge (study 1) and 5 months after discharge (study 2) increased in frequency and complexity in the 5 month interval. Ventricular ectopic beats at a rate of 20 or more per hour recorded before discharge were associated with complex ventricular ectopic patterns in the same 6 hour recording and with frequent (20 or more per hour), early cycle and bigeminal patterns in recordings mad 5 months later. Analysis with log-linear modeling indicated that the occurrence of complex ventricular ectopic beats at follow-up examination was associated with the concomitant use of antiarrhythmic agents,but not with use of digitalis, propranolol or tranquilizers. A ventricular ectopic beat frequency of 20 or more per hour at discharge was associated with increased (P less than 0.05) cardiac mortality in the initial 0 to 4 months after discharge but not in the subsequent 8 months; ectopic beats recorded in the 5 month follow-up study were not associated with increased cardiac mortality in the subsequent 5 to 12 months. The prognostic significance of ventricular ectopic beats is discussed in the light of these findings.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005117:Cardiac Complexes, Premature / Q000209:etiology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006352:Heart Ventricles; D006801:Humans; D008722:Methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013637:Tape Recording; D013997:Time Factors