Relation between plasma free fatty acids and arrhythmias within the first twelve hours of acute myocardial infarction.

The relation between arrhythmias and plasma free fatty acid (FFA) levels measured every hour in the first 12 h after acute myocardial infarction was studied in thirty-five patients admitted 4.5 h (range 1-9 h) after the onset of symptoms. There was a significant relation between arrhythmias and high mean FFA levels in the first 12 h after acute myocardial infarction. A similar but weaker relation was observed for arrhythmias and high peak FFA levels but not high admission FFA levels. These results suggest that the arrhythmogenicity of FFA within the first 12 h of acute myocardial infarction may depend partly on FFA levels which remain consistently high. Because of the rapid and wide fluctuation of FFA levels during this time no single random value can be considered representative of the mean level, which may explain the conflicting results of previous studies.