INCREASED ADHESIVENESS OF PERIPHERAL-BLOOD LEUKOCYTES CORRESPONDS TO THE APPEARANCE OF EXPANSION FOLLOWING ANTERIOR WALL MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION

The appearance of increased leukocyte adhesiveness/aggregation as an i nflammatory marker in the peripheral blood of patients with anterior w all myocardial infarction was monitored. Of the 26 patients included i n the study, 7 had infarct expansion as shown by an enlargement of lef t ventricular end-diastolic volume. The percent of aggregated leukocyt es in the peripheral blood of patients with expansion (29.7 +/- 15.5%) was significantly higher (p = 0.01) than that obtained from patients with no expansion (18.5 +/- 6.8%). The lack of significant differences in peak creatine kinase concentrations between patients with and with out expansion suggests that infarct size is not necessarily the main d eterminant for the appearance of expansion; an increased inflammatory reaction could be a contributory factor.