title: Prognosis after extension of myocardial infarct: the role of Q wave or non-Q wave infarction.
abstract: We examined whether or not subsets of patients with extension of myocardial infarct were at high risk for early and late mortality. Some data suggest increased risk in patients with non-Q wave infarcts and we hypothesized that infarct extension in this group might be associated with a poorer prognosis than that for patients with extension of Q wave infarcts. A total of 1253 patients with acute myocardial infarction who were included in our data base were followed prospectively. The patients were classified according to electrocardiographic results into the following groups: those with non-Q wave (n = 277) infarcts and those with Q-anterior (n = 462) and Q-inferior (n = 497) infarcts. Extension was diagnosed by two of the following criteria: (1) recurrent chest pain 24 hr or more after admission to the hospital, (2) new persistent electrocardiographic changes, and (3) elevation or reappearance of creatine kinase. By these criteria 85 (6%) patients had extension (8% of non-Q wave infarcts, 6% of Q-anterior infarcts, and 6% of Q-inferior infarcts). Hospital mortality in patients with extension was 15% in those with Q wave infarcts vs 43% in those with non-Q wave infarcts (p less than .01). Nine hundred and fifty-two patients were followed for 1 year. In 24% of those who did not survive 1 year there was extension of infarct; only 6% of survivors had extension (p less than .01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality*; D011379:Prognosis