Characteristics and prognosis of patients with acute myocardial infarction in relation to occurrence of congestive heart failure

Congestive heart failure is one of the major symptoms accompanyingacute myocardial infarction (AMI). The study aimed to describethe occurrence, characteristics and prognosis of congestiveheart failure in AMI and to compare post-MI patients with andwithout congestive heart failure. The methods used includedbaseline characteristics, initial symptoms, electrocardiogram(ECG), mortality during hospitalization and one year follow-upin consecutive patients with AMI admitted to Sahlgrenska Hospital,Göteborg, Sweden. Congestive heart failure was observed in 51% of the cases. Patientswith congestive heart failure were older, more frequently hada history of previous cardiovascular disease, and, less frequentlyhad chest pain on admission to hospital. They had a higher occurrenceof life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias during initial hospitalization,and their mortality during one year follow-up was 39% as comparedto 17% in patients without congestive heart failure (P<0.001).This difference remained significant when correcting for differencesat baseline. Patients with severe congestive heart failure hada one year mortality of 47% vs 31% in patients with moderatecongestive heart failure (P<0.01). Signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure occur in everysecond patient admitted to hospital due to AMI, and indicatea bad prognosis, which is directly related to the severity ofcongestive heart failure.