Prognosis of women with exercise-induced ECG changes--results from a longitudinal population study.

A comprehensive population study of women aged 38-60 was carried out in Göteborg, Sweden in 1968-1969. A subsample comprising 194 women were submitted to a maximal work performance test using a bicycle ergometer. Exercise-induced ECG changes were common and as common in women as in men in Göteborg who had been studied in the same way. ST depressions (Minnesota Code items 4:1-2) were observed 4 min after maximal exercise in 30 women. All these women were still alive when a follow-up was made 6 years later, none had had myocardial infarction, and only 2 of them reported symptoms of angina pectoris. 1 woman later on had a fatal myocardial infarction as was found in a 12-year-follow-up study. It is concluded that exercise-induced ECG changes are of limited value for predicting myocardial infarction or death from ischaemic heart disease in women.