Relation of cardiac complications to SGOT level in acute myocardial infarction.

The incidence of each of the commoner cardiac complications of acute myocardial infarction was correlated with the serum aspartic aminotransferase (SGOT) level in cases treated in a coronary care unit. There was a highly significant linear correlation between SGOT level and the incidence of supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias, complete heart block, bundle-branch block, myocardial insufficiency, and secondary cardiac arrest. Increasing SGOT levels were accompanied by an increasing incidence of each of these complications except sinus bradycardia, whose incidence decreased. The distribution of primary cardiac arrest was independent of the SGOT level.