A variety of noncardiac conditions mimic the electrocardiographic changes ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Therefore, a physician must maintain high index suspicion when evaluating ST-segment elevation (STE). We present case epigastric pain secondary to ileus and gastric dilatation masquerading as anterolateral STEMI on an electrocardiogram (ECG). The STE promptly resolved following ...

Seventy four patients (66 men, eight women; mean age 54.3 years) underwent submaximal exercise testing 7-23 days (mean 10.7) after acute myocardial infarction. Follow up was a mean period of 11.3 months. When compared with patients with no exercise induced abnormality, ST segment elevation, ST shift (depression or elevation or both), ST depression, inability to complete five metabolic equivalen...

BACKGROUND Some aspects of prognosis are not reflected by cumulative survival estimates. These aspects include information on the time already survived by the patient and the patient's survival compared with the general population. Conditional survival (ie, conditional on having survived a certain period of time already) and relative conditional survival (ie, compared with the general populatio...

Impaired left ventricular function and extensive coronary artery disease are important determinants of prognosis after acute myocardial infarction. The ability of clinical and predischarge submaximal exercise test variables to predict multivessel coronary artery disease and impaired left ventricular function was assessed in 62 survivors of acute myocardial infarction. Abnormal exercise blood pr...

BACKGROUND Diabetes mellitus and admission blood glucose are important risk factors for mortality in ST segment elevation myocardial infarction patients, but their relative and individual role remains on debate. OBJECTIVE To analyze the influence of diabetes mellitus and admission blood glucose on the mortality of ST segment elevation myocardial infarction patients submitted to primary corona...

BACKGROUND Prior studies have found that smokers undergoing thrombolytic therapy for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction have lower in-hospital mortality than nonsmokers, a phenomenon called the "smoker's paradox." Evidence, however, has been conflicting regarding whether this paradoxical association persists in the era of primary percutaneous coronary intervention. METHODS AND RESULTS...