Early post-infarction angina. Incidence and prognostic relevance.

Abstract

Early post-infarction angina (2-15 days after infarction) occurred in 132 out of 616 consecutive coronary care unit admissions for acute myocardial infarction within 24 h from onset of symptoms. Patients with early post-infarction angina more often had a history of stable pre-infarction angina as well as late post-infarction angina. Coronary artery disease was more extensive in patients with early post-infarction angina compared with those without angina. Forty-five patients with angina were treated before hospital discharge with coronary artery bypass (CABG) (N = 35) or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) (N = 10). Survival and incidence of non-fatal reinfarctions during 1-year follow-up was similar in patients with and without early post-infarction angina (respectively 83% versus 82% and 13% versus 11%). The incidence of angina in the follow-up was higher in the whole group of patients with early post-infarction angina then in patients without angina (53% versus 32%, P less than 0.001), but was lowest (22%) in the subset who underwent CABG or PTCA before discharge. In patients with early post-infarction angina, age, left ventricular dysfunction, extensive coronary artery disease, stable pre-infarction angina and electrocardiographic ischaemic changes distant from the infarct zone during angina were significantly associated with a poor survival.