The prognostic significance of serial exercise testing after myocardial infarction.
Serial treadmill exercise testing (mean 5.5 tests/patient) was used to evaluate the prognosis of 200 males (mean age 53 years) without clinical heart failure or unstable angina pectoris 3 weeks after acute myocardial infarction (MI). Exercise-induced ischemic ST-segment depression greater than or equal to 0.2 mV 3 weeks after MI was significantly more prevalent in patients with subsequent cardiac arrest (100%) or coronary artery bypass graft surgery (64%) than in patients without subsequent events within 2 years of infarction (35%) (p less than 0.05). Exercise-induced ventricular arrhythmia on multiple tests 5-52 weeks after MI was more prevalent in patients with recurrent myocardial infarction (90%) than in patients without subsequent events (47%) (p less than 0.001). By contrast, exercise-induced ventricular arrhythmia on a single test at 3 weeks was a less powerful predictor of subsequent cardiac events. Exercise-induced ischemia 3 weeks after MI predicted early fatal events, while ventricular arrhythmia on serial testing predicted later nonfatal events.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005080:Exercise Test; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000150:complications; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000150:complications; D013997:Time Factors; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000150:complications