13th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 1998

January 24-31, 1998
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-105

Role of heart rate variability in risk stratification after acute myocardial infarction

M. Fioranelli, P. Azzolini, G.M. Mileto, F. Sgreccia, G. Speciale, M.P. Risa, C. Peraldo Neja, R. Ricci, A. Puglisi.
Division of Cardiology, Fatebenefratelli Hospital, Tiberina Island, Rome, Italy

Backgrounds

Mortality after myocardial infarction may be due to arrhythmic events, reinfarction, progressive heart failure and non-cardiac cause.

In the present era of thrombolytic therapy the incidence of sudden death after MI is about 3-4% within the first year.

The observation that in patients with an acute MI the absence of respiratory sinus arrhythmia is associated with an increase of "in-hospital" mortality represents the first of a large number of reports that have demonstrated the prognostic value of HRV to identify high-risk patients^1-5.

Depressed HRV after MI reflects a decrease of vagal activity directed to the heart, which leads to prevalence of sympathetic drive and to cardiac electric instability^6-11.

Aim of this study was to investigate the role of HRV in prognosis after a MI, and its association to other classic parameters of risk stratification such as ejection fraction (EF) and late potentials (LP).