Background: The involvement of the right ventricular (RV) myocardium in inferior acute myocardial infarction (AMI) increases the risk of complication and death rates, which makes it important to timely identify this type of myocardial infarction.
Aim: To assess the value of functional, biochemical, coronary angiographic and ultrasound parameters in the patients in their productive age with inferior AMI, in order to identify the RV injury before and after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
Materials and methods: This cohort prospective study included 141 patients with inferior AMI and ST elevation (26 women aged up to 60 years and 115 men aged up to 65 years), admitted to the emergency of the Medical Unit of Kazan (Volga region) Federal University from 2019 to 2021. The patients past history, clinical, biochemical and ultrasound data were obtained on admission and at discharge from the hospital. The two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography was performed at days 5 to 7 after PCI. The results are given as median values and 25% and 75% quartiles (Ме [Q1; Q3]).
Results: According to electrocardiographic signs, 41.8% (n = 59) patients with inferior AMI comprised the group with the RV injury. There were no differences in the myocardial injury biomarker levels between the groups on admission (р = 0.31 and p = 0.786, respectively). The coronary angiography showed that the index artery was the right coronary artery in 100% (n = 59) cases with the RV injury and in 67.1% (n = 55, р 0.001) of the cases without the RV injury. Proximal involvement was 2.7 more common in biventricular infarction, than in the isolated inferior one (р = 0.013). During PCI, the RV involvement significantly increased the risk of complications (in 28 (47.5%) and 18 (22.0%) of the cases, respectively, р 0.001), among them being the need in a temporary pacemaker placement (8 (13.6%) and 2 (2.4%) patients, р = 0.027). Echocardiography showed worse parameters of global and local contractility of both ventricles in the group with the RV involvement in the inferior AMI. The left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction decreased from 55% [51; 57] to 52% [47; 56] (р = 0.005); global RV deformity from -15.2% [-18.5; -13.4] to -12.3% [-15.6; -10.6] (р 0.001); total number of segments with local contractility abnormalities increased from 2 [1; 3] to 5 [3; 6] (р 0.001).
Conclusion: The study has confirmed that the involvement of RV into inferior LV AMI in the patients of productive age should be verified by abnormalities of electrocardiographic, biochemical, coronary angiographic and ultrasound parameters. To document the RV injury before PCI, ST elevation in additional right chest leads (V3RV4R) was most informative, whereas after PCI, it was the finding of abnormal local contractility of basal and medial inferior RV segments by two-dimensional echocardiography and decreased longitudinal RV deformation by speckle tracking.
