Long-term follow-up after recovery from acute myocardial infarction. Observations on survival, ventricular arrhythmias, and sudden death.

A long-term 12-year follow-up of 248 patients surviving acute myocardial infarction indicated a cumulative survival of 89%, 68%, 53%, and 45% for 1, 5, 10, and 12 years, respectively. When patients were assessed with five routinely obtained clinical factors, significant prognostic stratification of high- and low-risk survival groups extended throughout the follow-up period. Sudden cardiac death was found to be twice as frequent as nonsudden cardiac death, but a significant relationship between sudden death and complex ventricular ectopic beats could not be defined. The extent of complex features of ventricular ectopic beats such as pairs, multiform, repetitive, and R-on-T was inversely related to survival. During the first year after acute myocardial infarction, frequency of ventricular ectopic beats was also inversely related to survival. A long-term effect of frequency on survival, however, could not be demonstrated.