Ventricular premature complexes in prognosis of angina.

We studied the prognostic role of ventricular premature complexes occurring during 1 hour of electrocardiographic monitoring of 416 men with effort angina who had never had myocardial infarction, and compared mortality over 5 years with that of 1739 men with infarction before first observation. Multivariate analyses of survival identified the presence of ventricular premature complexes in 1 hour of monitoring, the presence of ST-segment depression on the standard ECG, and age as the variables making the most important independent contributions to risk of death (all causes and sudden coronary deaths) among the men with angina. The relatively lower age-adjusted 5-year mortality among men with angina compared with those who had a prior myocardial infarction reflects the lower prevalence in the former group of indicators of myocardial dysfunction, such as ventricular ectopic activity and ST-segment depression.