ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the prevalence of ventricular ectopic activity in normal persons and in patients with coronary artery disease, especially those who have survived an acute myocardial infarction, and the interrelationships between left ventricular dysfunction, ventricular ectopic activity, and mortality. In apparently normal subjects, ventricular ectopic activity is more prevalent with increasing age, other risk factors for coronary artery disease, or evidence of cardiac or pulmonary pathology. A major determinant of mortality in patients with coronary artery disease is the degree of left ventricular dysfunction. In addition, the extent of vessel involvement is an important prognostic factor. If ventricular ectopic activity predisposes to mortality by causing ventricular fibrillation, it should predict only sudden death mortality. The risk ratio of patients with arrhythmia compared to those without arrhythmia is higher in the low-risk than in the high-risk groups. As expected, the low-risk group is the largest group of survivors of acute myocardial infarction.
