Early post-myocardial infarction exercise testing in subjects 70 years or more of age. Functional and prognostic evaluation.

A subjective maximal exercise test was performed in 62 patients, 70 years of age or more, in the third week after an acute myocardial infarction. Forty-two percent of the surviving AMI population in this age group could be tested. The estimated aerobic work capacity of the patients was on the average about 3 mets. Their maximal heart rate was about 70-80% below the normal age predicted maximum. A low increase of the pressure-rate product from rest to maximal exercise and occurrence of major exercise associated ventricular arrhythmias identified a high-risk group of 32 patients with probability of 4.5 year survival of 0.250 vs 0.767 in the remaining patients (P less than 10(-5)).