Loading...
A recent study suggested that the location of a Q-wave myocardial infarction had no bearing on prognosis (Benhorin et al., J Am Coll Cardiol 1990; 15:1201-7). In response, this large cohort study compared the outcomes of 1929 patients with a first anterior wall Q-wave MI and 1724 with a first inferior Q-wave MI.
The two groups did not differ by sex (three quarters were men), age (average, 62 years), or prevalence of a history of angina (40 percent), hypertension (40 percent), or diabetes (20 percent). Hospital courses of anterior-MI patients were more often complicated by heart failure, arrhythmias, and hypotension than those of inferior-MI patients. Rates of in- hospital, 1-year, and 5-year mortality after anterior MI were 18 percent, 9 per…