[Left ventricular function and secondary angioplasty after anterior infarction in simple coronary vessel disease].

Arterial patency is a good prognostic factor in terms of survival and left ventricular function after myocardial infarction. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the benefit of secondary angioplasty of the infarct-related artery in single vessel, left anterior descending disease, on regional and global left ventricular function. Initial coronary angiography was undertaken at the 7th +/- 2 days after the onset of infarction. Arterial patency was assessed by the TIMI criteria and by percentage stenosis on quantitative angiography. Forty consecutive patients (Group I) underwent conventional angioplasty of the left anterior descending artery at the 9th +/- 2 days. Twelve consecutive patients (Group II) did not undergo angioplasty. A repeat coronary angiographic study was performed at 3 months. The results showed no difference between the two groups of patients in base line values. A significant improvement in arterial patency was observed in Group I (TIMI Grades II or III) and in residual stenosis at 3 months (54.7 +/- 13% versus 80.6 +/- 13%, p < 0.05). In addition, a significant improvement in ejection fraction of +4.7% (p < 0.02), of left anterior descending myocardial regional wall motion of +7.6 (p < 0.02) and a reduction of induced left ventricular end systolic volume of -2.2 ml/m2 (p < 0.05) were observed in Group I. Initial segmental hypokinesia or akinesia improved in 67.5% of patients. However, 50% of patients in Group II improved their segmental wall motion abnormalities at 3 months.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)