[Clinical factors which influence the 1-year post-infarction prognosis]

Many clinical factors influence the 1-year prognosis in myocardial infarction (MI) patients. The most important clinical determinants are the left ventricular dysfunction, myocardial ischemia, and complex ventricular arrhythmias. Some authors have found an independent prognostic value of complex ventricular arrhythmias, while others consider that ventricular arrhythmias predict future cardiac events only if associated with low ejection fractions. Other factors that have 1-year prognostic value are the following: a previous MI, a history of angina at least 3 months preceding the infarct, postmyocardial angina, and the criteria that indicate to the practitioner whether MI patients are medically ineligible for stress testing. There still remain controversies in regard to the predictive value of certain variables such as the site, type, and extension of the MI, the presence of complex ventricular arrhythmias, exercise-induced hypotension, ST segment elevation, and the electrical provocation of dangerous arrhythmias.