Category: Cardiac Function

This study demonstrates that multivessel coronary artery disease is common in survivors of acute myocardial infarction and is especially common in patients with history of a remote antecedent myocardial infarction and in patients with angina post-infarction. Furthermore, it was found that coronary angiography could be performed safely within 30 days after myocardial infarction in stable patients and with mild risk in those having a complicated convalescence.

Clinical Characteristics

Although there was a greater proportion of angina in the angiography group and congestive heart failure in the non-angiography group, the post-infarction clinical convalescence and location and extent of infarction by ECG were not significantly different between those who had angiography and those who did not. Theoretically, those patients undergoing late angiography could have had progression of their disease although the percentage with multivessel disease was similar in the early angiography group (73 percent) and in all patients undergoing angiography (75 percent).

We can only speculate as to differences in the extent of coronary disease between those who had coronary angiography and those who did not Among the clinical parameters evaluated in this study, age and sex were the only significant differences between these two groups. These differences may be explained by our decision not to study asymptomatic patients over 70 years of age, and women sustaining myocardial infarctions at a later age than men. Thus, there may be differences in the extent of coronary artery disease between those who had coronary angiography and those who did not, possibly because of differences in age and sex.

Patient Characteristics

The clinical characteristics of those patients having angiography (within 30 days) after myocardial infarction are shown in Table 1 and compared with those who did not have angiography soon after infarction. The group undergoing early angiography was significantly younger and consisted of more men. There was no significant difference in the location or extent of infarction as determined by ECG, and both groups had a similar percentage of patients with previous infarction. In patients undergoing early angiography, the procedure was performed at a mean of 22 days after infarction. Similarly, when all patients undergoing angiography are compared to those not having angiography (Table 1), there remains a significant difference in age and sex between the two groups.

Forty-seven of the 92 patients (51 percent) undergoing early coronary angiography had an uncomplicated convalescence, while 45 (49 percent) had a complicated convalescence. Fifty-six of the 117 patients who had had coronary angiography and 37 of the 79 patients who did not have angiography had a complicated post-myocardial infarction convalescence (Table 2). Although there were more patients who experienced only angina in the angiography group and more with congestive heart failure only in the nonangiography group, there was no significant difference in the overall distribution of complications between the two groups. Therefore, the only significant differences between the groups having angiography and those not having angiography among the parameters considered were age and sex.