Equilibrium radionuclide ventriculography in men after transmural myocardial infarction.

Using equilibrium radionuclide ventriculography, the authors investigated left ventricular ejection fraction in 10 healthy men and in 57 men who had undergone their first transmural myocardial infarction (MI) 4 to 7 months earlier, were below 65 years of age and did not present signs of heart failure at the time of examination. Resting ejection fraction in healthy men amounted to 63 +/- 5%, in patients with uncomplicated MI to 54 +/- 7%, and in patients with clinical manifestations of heart failure in the acute phase to 37 +/- 8%. Patients with anteroseptal MI showed a negative correlation between the ejection fraction, on the one hand, and the sum of Q wave voltages in the precordial ECG map and the maximum value of serum creatine kinase in the acute phase of MI, on the other hand. The ejection fraction correlated with the degree of pulmonary hypertension during exercise. At work load of 50 W the ejection fraction measured in 31 patients was not significantly different shortly before discharge from hospital and 6 months after the onset of MI.