[Significance of pulmonary artery diastolic pressure after myocardial infarction for physical training (author's transl)].

Functional disorders of the left ventricle after myocardial infarction at rest and with exercise can be evaluated with right heart floating catheter by measuring pulmonary artery diastolic pressure. 45% of 200 patients with myocardial infarctions did not tolerate bicycle exercise test with a work load of 50 Watt during 6 minutes. A routine digitalisation of these patients without strict indication did not improve the results. The upper borderline to admit a physical training program is a pulmonary artery diastolic pressure of 20 mm Hg; this should be realised otherwise additional complications have to be expected in long term follow up. The effects of digitalis should be controlled with floating catheter observations in these patients too. There are some indications, that it is possible with the same technique to evaluate hemodynamic responses on psychological strain. Measurements of pulmonary artery diastolic pressure after myocardial infarction open a wide field for individual therapy from drugs to physical training and even to behaviour therapy for stressfull situations.