Left ventricular function assessment and acute myocardial infarction

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The analysis of left ventricular function has become a mainstay in the diagnosis and localization of myonecrosis in the acute phase of myocardial infarction, and subsequent regional wall motion analysis can establish both early predischarge prognosis and late prognosis. Depressed global left ventricular function has been the principal index of late mortality, and the extent of left ventricular dysynergy has correlated with the development of pump failure and cardiogenic shock complicating myocardial infarction. With the advent of thrombolytic intervention, the preservation of ventricular shape and end-diastolic dimension after successful reperfusion therapy may correlate more closely with long-term survival; the uncoupling of global ejection fraction from survival in this clinical setting relates to the ubiquitous improvement of this parameter after thrombolysis. In the era of thrombolytic therapy, left ventricular function may be an invalid surrogate estimate of improved survival in clinical trials. Further improvement in global left ventricular function beyond the 50% ejection fraction attained in most clinical trials of thrombolytic therapy may not be possible.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: