Prognostic Value of Left and Right Ventricle Myocardial Performance Indices and Introduction of a New Combined Myocardial Performance Index of Both Ventricles in Left Inferior ST Segment Elevated Myocardial Infarction

The study aimed to evaluate the prognostic role of combined myocardial performance index of both ventricles in comparison with the Left Index of Myocardial Performance (LIMP) and/or Right Index of Myocardial Performance (RIMP) for early and late cardiac events in Primary Left Ventricular (LV) inferior ST-Segment Elevated Myocardial Infarction (STEMI). The study sample was composed of 221 patients (age 58.4±5.5 years, 189 men) with primary LV inferior STEMI. All patients underwent Doppler echocardiography and ascertained one year follow-up. Cases of hospital cardiac deaths; Acute Cardiac Complications (ACCs) - Ventricular Extrasystoly ? Lown III° (VE), sino-atrial or atrio-ventricular Heart Block of II-IIIO (HB), Supraventricular Tachyarrhythmia (SVT), and Cardiogenic Shock (CS); 1 year post-hospital cardiac deaths; and 1 year cardiac re-hospitalization were analyzed. LIMP was a significant explanatory factor for CS, 1-year cardiac death and 1-year re-hospitalization while RIMP predicted hospital cardiac death and all ACCs. Furthermore, [LIMP+ RIMP] ?1.00 established its powerful predictive value in all study outcomes - hospital cardiac death, all ACCs (p<0.01 for all cases), 1-year cardiac death and re-hospitalization (p<0.001 for both cases). Combined LIMP and RIMP is shown to be a stronger prognostic factor than LIMP or RIMP alone for all the selected study outcomes. We suggest using this newly established index of [LIMP+ RIMP] ?1.00 in identifying primary LV inferior STEMI high-risk patients for both early and late clinical outcomes.