Exercise testing at 3 weeks, 6 weeks and 18 months after infarction and the outcome at 3 years in young patients (under 55 years).

To examine the prognostic value of routine postinfarction exercise tests in young patients, exercise tests were carried out at 3 and 6 weeks and 18 months after infarction in 149 patients aged under 55 years at the time of the index infarction. The patients also had coronary angiography and left ventriculography a mean of 3 months after infarction. Three years after infarction, only two of the 149 patients have died, reinfarction occurred in only seven (4.7%) patients; unstable angina in four (3%) patients and coronary artery surgery was needed in 31 (20.8%) patients; 16 in the first, 10 in the second, and 5 in the third year of follow-up. Angina on exercise testing at 6 weeks was the only variable with any predictive value. Eighteen (38%) of the 47 patients with, compared to 12 (11.8%) of the 102 patients without, angina on exercise testing at 6 weeks had coronary surgery (less than 0.001). None of the other exercise variables reliably predicted death, or other complications, including coronary surgery. Ten (13.8%) of the 75 patients excluded from the study died during follow-up; six of them within 6 weeks of infarction. Four (67%) of these patients were excluded from the study because of heart failure. Therefore, the 3-year outcome in young survivors of a myocardial infarction is good and is not reliably predicted by exercise testing at 3 and 6 weeks or 18 months.