Prognostic value of ventricular arrhythmias and transient ST-T changes after myocardial infarction: a two-year follow-up with ambulatory ECG recording.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the frequency and prognostic significance of ventricular arrhythmias (VA) and of ST-T changes found during 24-h ECG recording in patients who survived an acute myocardial infarction. Eighty-nine patients (2 females and 87 males) discharged from hospital after acute myocardial infarction were studied. Mean age was 52.2 years (SD +/- 10) with a range of 26-68. Serial observations were carried out at 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 months after the acute event. Eight patients died during the first two years of follow-up, of these, 2 deaths were of noncardiac origin: one was due to gastric carcinoma and the other to pulmonary neoplasm. Of the 6 cardiac deaths, 4 were sudden and unexpected and 2 were due to reinfarction. Statistical analysis of the results obtained in the first three months of follow-up has not shown any significant correlation between pathologic patterns and cardiac death. In the second period we found a statistically significant relationship between cardiac death and multiform VPBs (p less than 0.05), CVA (p less than 0.05), and ST-T changes (p less than 0.05). More significant was the correlation between cardiac death and the presence at the same time of ST-T changes and multiform VPBs (p less than 0.01).
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011379:Prognosis; D012306:Risk; D013997:Time Factors