Long-term prognosis of patients with early post-infarction angina.
BACKGROUND
Most studies have shown that early post-infarction angina (EPA) implies an unfavorable long-term prognosis among patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, some studies have failed to establish a link between the occurrence of EPA and increased mortality and recurrent infarction rates.


RESULTS
In order to evaluate a long-term prognosis in patients with EPA, we assessed the 5-year prognosis of 80 patients with AMI by the presence or absence of EPA. During the 5-year follow up, the occurrence of death, cardiac death, recurrent infarction, unstable angina, heart failure, revascularization and cardiac events were recorded. A cardiac event was defined as an occurrence of any of the following events: cardiac death, recurrent infarction, unstable angina, heart failure and revascularization. Survival analysis showed no differences between patients with and without EPA in the probability of death (p=NS), cardiac death (p=NS), recurrent myocardial infarction (p=NS) and unstable angina (p=NS). Patients with EPA had a higher probability of developing cardiac events (p=0.0285) and undergoing revascularization procedures (p=0.0188).


CONCLUSIONS
EPA increases the risk of patients developing cardiac events and undergoing revascularization procedures, and thereby implies a poor long-term prognosis for patients with AMI.
Erceg
Predrag
P
Gerontology Clinic, Zvezdara University Hospital, Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. erceg@sbb.co.yu
Davidovic
Mladen
M
Vasiljevic
Zorana
Z
Mitrovic
Predrag
P
Vukcevic
Vladan
V
Zdravkovic
Sanja
S
Mihajlovic
Gordana
G
Despotovic
Nebojsa
N
Milosevic
Dragoslav P
DP
D000368:Aged; D000789:Angina, Unstable / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011379:Prognosis; D012008:Recurrence; D012307:Risk Factors