[Programmed electric stimulation following acute myocardial infarct. Significance of stimulation timing]

To assess the influence of time on the inducibility by programmed electrical stimulation of ventricular arrhythmias after acute myocardial infarction, we studied 18 patients on the 5th and 24th day after infarction with a stimulation protocol employing a maximum of 3 right ventricular extrastimuli during sinus rhythm and at 3 paced cycle lengths. All patients were without documented sustained ventricular arrhythmias (sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation) prior to the investigation. Sustained ventricular arrhythmias were induced in 2 patients on day 5, but in 9 on day 24 after infarction. This difference in incidence was statistically significant (p less than 0.05), as was the change in the distribution ratio of induced sustained ventricular arrhythmias from day 5 to day 24 (p less than 0.05). The types of arrhythmia induced on day 24 were sustained ventricular tachycardia with a mean cycle length of 207 ms in 6 cases (5 monomorphic, 1 polymorphic), and ventricular fibrillation in 3 cases. These 9 patients did not differ from the remaining 9 patients in maximal CPK, infarct site, number of stenosed coronary arteries, global left ventricular ejection fraction, and in the results of 24-hour Holter monitoring, but they had a significantly shorter right ventricular effective refractory period (223 +/- 10 ms versus 259 +/- 28 ms; p less than 0.05). During the follow-up period of 24 +/- 5 months no patient died, had syncopal attacks, or developed spontaneous episodes of sustained ventricular arrhythmia. The timing of programmed electrical stimulation with a maximum of 3 right ventricular extrastimuli strongly influences the inducibility of sustained ventricular arrhythmias after acute myocardial infarction.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)