Decreased incidence of ventricular late potentials after successful thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction
Article Abstract:
A myocardial infarction (heart attack) usually occurs when there is a severe decrease in the oxygen supply to the heart muscle by a blockage or narrowing in one of the heart's arteries (coronary artery) due to blood clots. An electrocardiogram measures the electrical activity of the heart and is used to identify abnormal heart muscle activity. The pattern produced by the electrocardiogram recording has a particular waveform corresponding to different aspects of heart muscle activity. Patients having coronary artery blockage due to a blood clot can be given drugs such as tissue plasminogen activators (t-PA) which dissolve blood clots and reduce the amount of heart muscle death. In addition, these drugs also improve the electrical stability of the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart. To determine whether the ventricular electrical activity is altered after treatment, 106 patients having had a myocardial infarction were given either clot dissolving drugs, or conventional therapies. An undesirable type of electrical activity, late potentials associated with abnormally fast ventricular heart beats (ventricular tachyarrhythmia), and sudden death occurred in only two patients (5 percent) who were given t-PA and in 14 (23 percent) given conventional treatments. The use of t-PA is reported to reduce the amount of ventricular late potentials and ultimately decrease the incidence of tachyarrhythmia and sudden death.
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 1989
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Heart-rate profile during exercise as a predictor of sudden death
Article Abstract:
The balance between sympathetic and vagal activity mediates changes in heart rate during exercise and recovery from exercise. The hypothesis that, among healthy persons, there is sudden death occurrence in the presence of abnormal heart-rate profiles during exercise and recovery is analyzed.
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 2005
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Long-term outcome in asymptomatic men with exercise-induced premature ventricular depolarizations
Article Abstract:
Frequent premature ventricular depolarizations during exercise may predict which men will eventually die from heart disease, according to a study of 6,101 men with symptoms of heart disease. Premature ventricular depolarizations are a type of heart arrhythmia.
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 2000
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