Differences of global and regional left ventricular function in anterior and inferior myocardial infarction: assessment by the use of a regional ejection fraction.

Radionuclide angiography was performed on 41 patients with transmural myocardial infarction (MI) [17: anterior MI, 24: inferior MI] and 10 normal subjects in order to evaluate the influence of the infarct site on the global and the regional left ventricular function. The severity of the wall motion abnormality agreed closely with the reduction in the relative regional ejection fraction (%REF). The depression of the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in anterior MI was greater than that in inferior MI (p less than 0.01). We also found that the depression of the performance in the infarcted zone in anterior MI was more marked than that in inferior MI (p less than 0.01). However, function in the non-infarcted zone was almost the same in the anterior MI as in the inferior MI. As to the extent of the hypokinetic area, there was no significant difference between the patients with anterior MI and those with inferior MI. The above results indicated that the infarct site is an important determinant of the regional and the global left ventricular function after MI.