[Infarction in the inferior myocardium with and without damage to the right ventricle. Treatment and prognosis]. / Nedreveggsinfarkt med samtidig høyre ventrikkel-skade. Behandling og prognose.

ABSTRACT

Acute inferior infarction often involves the right ventricle as well. For these patients, the prognosis is not as good as for patients with inferior infarction alone. Right ventricular infarction can be diagnosed with a high level of sensitivity and specificity by recording right precordial leads. We used V4R. 100 patients admitted to the Coronary Care Unit with an electrocardiographic diagnosis of inferior infarction were registrated consecutively. V4R was recorded in 95 patients; the right ventricle was affected in 35 of them. The mortality during the stay in hospital was 3% in the group with inferior infarction and 11% when the right ventricle was involved (p > 0.05). An unusually large proportion of the patients in both groups received thrombolytic therapy (more than 70%). The result may indicate that thrombolytic therapy is of particular benefit to patients with inferior infarction and involvement of the right ventricle.