Independent prognostic value of supraventricular arrhythmias on 24-h ambulatory monitoring following myocardial infarction.

To determine the prognostic value of supraventricular arrhythmias, in addition to ventricular arrhythmias and clinical variables after myocardial infarction, 99 consecutive patients had 24-h ambulatory monitoring within 2 weeks of discharge. All patients completed at least 4-year follow-up (mean 56 +/- 6 months). During follow-up there were 29 cardiac events (13 cardiac deaths and 16 reinfarctions). The highest risk was associated with ventricular tachycardia (positive predictive accuracy 100%, negative predictive accuracy 75%, risk ratio 4.0) and supraventricular tachycardia i.e. paroxysmal tachycardia or AV nodal tachycardia (positive predictive accuracy 86%, negative predictive accuracy 80%, risk ratio 4.2). By multivariate analysis, supraventricular tachycardia proved to be an independent predictive variable, in addition to ventricular tachycardia, premature ventricular depolarisations greater than or equal to 10 h-1 and the presence of Killip class greater than or equal to II while in the coronary care unit for future cardiac events. These data suggest that supraventricular tachycardias detected on 24-h ambulatory monitoring shortly after discharge carry a poor prognosis and may indicate a different pathophysiology as compared to ventricular tachycardias.