REDUCED BEAT-TO-BEAT CHANGES OF HEART-RATE - AN IMPORTANT RISK FACTORAFTER ACUTE MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION

The prognostic significance of heart rate variability derived from 24- hour electrocardiographic recordings was investigated in 250 patients with acute myocardial infarction, During a follow-up of 6 months 15 pa tients experienced a serious arrhythmic event, These patients showed a significantly reduced beat to beat variability (p = 0.006), a slightl y reduced 5-min variability (p = 0.04) and no significant differences in the 24-hour variability compared to the patients free of arrhythmic events. Based on Cox proportional hazard analysis, beat to beat varia bility remained an independent risk factor (p = 0.0036) in addition to the presence or absence of ventricular late potentials (p = 0.0004) a nd history of previous infarction (p = 0.04).