Correlation between autonomous function and left ventricular performance after acute myocardial infarction

Abstract

Reduced ejection fraction (EF), possibly induced/mediated by autonomic abnormal activation, is one of the most powerful predictors of adverse outcome after acute myocardial infarction (MI). A deep understanding of the correlation between the autonomous functionality and the left ventricular performance in these patients is therefore of paramount importance. The autonomous function is reflected in the cardiac activity and, specifically, in the heart rate variability (HRV) signal. Given the cardiac activity nonlinearity, growing interest is being manifested towards nonlinear methods of analysis, which might provide more significant information than the traditional linear approaches.