[Cause of death in recent myocardial infarct. Correlation between extent of necrosis and clinical, electrocardiographic and anatomical findings].

A retrospective study of 100 case notes of patients who died from a recent myocardial infarction (less than one month before death) has established the causes of death: cardiac failure (52), rupture of the heart (40), major pulmonary emboli (3), primary irreversible ventricular fibrillation (2), unexplained death (3). Study of the extent of the necrosis by the technique of segmentation of the ventricular mass has allowed us to clarify the correlation between the "index of extent" ("i"), an the clinico-pathological findings. It has been noted in particular that those infarctions complicated by cardiogenic shock and/or by bilateral bundle branch block were those with the highest value of index of extent (i = 8.91, i = 9.40); also that cardiac failure and ventricular tachycardia were found in the extensive infarctions (i = 7,33, i = 9.52); also that rupture of the outer wall and pulmonary thromboses complicated infarctions of very small extent (i = 4,80, i = 5,67). It would not seem possible to reduce the hospital mortality of infarctions significantly, since it is essentially linked with circulatory failure caused by extensive necrosis, and with ruptures of the heart which are unpredictable and untreatable.