Abstract

To assess whether exercise testing could help predict cardiac mortality, we analyzed 14 exercise and 10 clinical variables in 292 patients treated medically, who unbderwent treadmill exercise testing and cardiac catheterization and were followed annually for a mean of 2.5 years. None of the individual variables could accurately predict subsequent cardiac mortality with predictive values ranging from 6 to 44 . Combinations of variables were then analyzed in the subset of 113 patients with multivessel coronary disease. A high-risk subgroup (n = 59) consisting of patients with either severe exercise ischemia or left ventricular dysfunction had a mortality of 20 ; this was significantly greater than a low-risk subgroup (n = 54) with neither severe exercise ischemia nor left ventricular dysfunction whose mortality was 2 . We conclude that combining clinical and exercise variables to distinguish highand low-risk subgroups of patients with similar coronary anatomy is useful in predicting cardiac mortality. Verf.-Referat