Echocardiographic evaluation of cardiac function and drug effects in acute myocardial infarction

The hemodynamic evaluation of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) usually is performed by invasive methods. A prospective echocardiographic study was conducted on 23 AMI patients to determine the feasibility of this technique in evaluating hemodynamics and in measuring the effect of drugs on left ventricular performance. The results showed that: 1) reproducible measurements of left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic dimensions can be obtained by echocardiography, and 2) echocardiography can be used in the assessment of the effect of drugs in AMI. As echocardiography is a simple noninvasive procedure, it is well suited for conducting longitudinal studies in patients outside the coronary care unit and in ambulatory AMI patients.