T-Wave Alternans in Acute Myocardial Infarction: An Evaluation of the Time of Testing on Its Prognostic Accuracy

Creighton University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Arrhythmias; Myocardial Infarction

Treatments: Procedure: T-wave Alternans

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00589849

05-13651

Details and patient eligibility

About

T-wave alternans is an electrocardiographic finding that has been shown to predict the occurrence of future cardiac arrhythmias in patients who have had a heart attack. What is unknown about T-wave alternans testing is when is the best time to perform the test. In most studies, T-wave alternans testing is conducted 4 weeks or more after a heart attack. It is unknown if T-wave alternans testing performed prior to hospital discharge in heart attack patients is reliable. The objective of this project is to determine the diagnostic accuracy of T-wave alternans testing performed prior to hospital discharge and again at 30 days after hospital discharge in patients who have suffered a heart attack.

Enrollment: 32 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 19+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Acute Myocardial Infarction (MI) confirmed by electrocardiographic and or/ enzymatic criteria
• Patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 45% or less

Exclusion criteria

• Patients with (1) atrial fibrillation, (2) pacemaker rhythm, (3) left bundle branch block, (4) class III-IV heart failure, (5) inability to achieve a target heart rate with exercise or handgrip stress or (6) spontaneous sustained ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation will be excluded
• Patients with recurrent angina pectoris, MI, coronary revascularization, or any other adverse cardiovascular event in the 30 days following their initial MI will also be excluded

Trial design

32 participants in 1 patient group

1

Treatment:

Procedure: T-wave Alternans