Diastolic and systolic function as predictors of exercise capacity after myocardial infarction in young Men

We evaluated the power of measurements of left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function for predicting exercise capacity in 97 young male survivors of a myocardial infarction. The patients were evaluated with M-mode echocardiography, a symptom-limited exercise test and coronary and LV angiography. In univariate analyses, maximum exercise workload was most closely related to the atrial emptying index, an index of diastolic function (r = 0.37, p < 0.005), but not to LV ejection fraction (r = 0.001, NS). This relationship was stronger in the 42 patients without signs of ischemia during exercise (r = 0.51, p < 0.005). Multivariate analyses indicated that the atrial emptying index (p < 0.005) provided independent contribution to the prediction of maximum exercise capacity. LV diastolic function but not LV systolic function was related to exercise capacity in young survivors of myocardial infarction.