AUTONOMIC NERVOUS-SYSTEM RESPONSES TO PERSONAL STRESSFUL EVENTS IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION - PRELIMINARY-RESULTS

Background: Life events specific for each individual may influence the onset of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and we wondered whether r ecall of such events elicits autonomic nervous system responses in pat ients. Methods: Thirty-one subjects with AMI, which occurred about 1 m onth previously (study group), and 22 healthy subjects were interviewe d. Whenever the presence of a stressful event was found within the las t 2 months before AMI onset, a key phrase of the event was isolated. E ach subject was faced with 20 written key sentences (including his/her own sentence if detected) at random order, for 40 s each. At the same time the heart rate (HR) and the galvanic skin response (GSR) were co ntinuously recorded. Pearson r correlations, chi(2) and t tests were e mployed for comparisons between study and control group as well as wit hin each group. Results: A recent exacerbating event was detected in 3 0/31 AMI patients and in 0/22 healthy subjects. For the 30 AMI patient s the values of HR following the sentence of the suspected event, spec ific for each patient, were statistically significantly higher than th e mean values of HR following the remaining 19 'neutral' statements. T he same significant difference appeared with regard to GSR values. The mean values of the AMI patients for the 19 neutral statements did not differ significantly from those of the healthy subjects for the 20 ne utral statements, either for HR or GSR. Conclusions: Findings suggest that recall of personal stressful events elicited autonomic nervous sy stem responses in AMI patients and, therefore, events with personal si gnificance are related to coronary disease onset.