[Variation in heart rate after acute myocardial infarct]

The reduced variability of the sinus rhythm is an adverse prognostic factor in patients after acute myocardial infarction. The paper is a review focused on the heart rate variability and its clinical correlate. The authors mention non-cardiological areas where assessment of heart rate variability is done as a matter of convention or experimentally. Methods for assessment of heart rate variability are classified into three groups (spectral methods, statistical evaluation, evaluation of the distribution of RR intervals lengths) and each group of methods is briefly discussed. The authors quotes and comments work concerned with the prognostic impact of heart rate variability in post-infarction patients. The discussion is focused on problems which remain to be resolved before routine measurement of the heart rate variability in cardiological patients.