Computer‐detected ventricular tachycardia in the coronary care unit: prognosis in patients with and without acute myocardial infarction

Survival (for up to 6 years) in coronary care unit (CCU) patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT) was studied with the aid of an automated arrhythmia monitoring system. Ventricular tachycardia was denned as four or more consecutive ventricular beats with a rate above 120 per min. During an 18‐month period, VT was observed in 102 individuals (13%) out of 800 patients without acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The 102 patients were compared with age‐ and sex‐matched patients with AMI and VT and a group with AMI but without VT. Hospital mortality was 27% in patients with AMI and VT, 23% in patients with AMI without VT, and 16% in non‐AMI patients with VT (NS). First year mortality after discharge was 20% in the non‐AMI group compared to 12% in the AMI groups (NS). The 1–6 years survival curves also did not differ significantly between the groups with a yearly mortality of between 5 and 6%. Acute myocardial infarction patients with rapid VT (> 150 min −1 ) or long VT (more than 10 beats) had a higher hospital mortality, otherwise the number or type of VT episodes did not relate to short‐ or long‐term prognosis in the studied groups. Ventricular tachycardia in the CCU did not seem to be an indicator of poor long‐term prognosis. It is concluded that long‐term prognosis in patients with VT in the CCU was little influenced by a current diagnosis of AMI.