Functional Imaging in Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

Prognosis in patients who had a prior documented myocardial infarct is affected by residual left ventricular function, the number of coronary narrowings and the presence of collateral flow, according to a multi-institutional study of 467 patients with an average follow-up of 50.5 months (Reale and Romeo, 1983). Invasive measurements of global ejection fractions showed no statistical difference between patients without late complications (52.86 ± 0.8 (SE) %) and with reinfarction (50.37 ± 2.3 (SE) %) respectively. However, in patients who died, the global EF was significantly lower (45.19 ± 3.2 (SE)%). Three-vessel disease was also significantly more frequent than in the other two groups together. In this study collateral flow was noted in about two thirds of the patients with or without complications or reinfarction, but in 86.8% of the patients who died during the follow-up period.