Usefulness of low-level exercise testing early after acute myocardial infarction in patients taking beta-blocking...

The value of low-level exercise testing early after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in 207 patients taking beta-blocking drugs was evaluated in a multicenter study of prognosis after AMI. After stratifying patients according to the absence of significant rales upon admission or pulmonary congestion on the admitting chest x-ray, the results of the exercise test (ability to complete the 9-minute protocol) permitted a large cohort (108 patients, 52% of exercising patients) with no deaths from cardiac causes in the year after AMI to be identified. The results suggest that even in patients taking beta-blocking agents, low-level exercise testing together with clinical stratification has value in identifying a large group of patients with a good prognosis after AMI.