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SUMMARY
Clinical and pathologic data were correlated in 22 patients with cardiogenic shock and 10 "control" patients who died suddenly after infarction without shock. A pathologic technique of ventricular mapping allowed quantification of recent as well as old infarction. Total left ventricular
(LV) damage averaged 51% (range 35-68%) in the shock patients and 23% (range 14-31%) in
the control group. Shock was associated with recent infarction (all 22 patients), old infarction
(21 patients) and extension of infarction (18 patients). Extension, often in a subepicardial manner, averaged 6% of LV mass (range 3-10%) in 18 patients with shock; it preceded shock in
four, coincided with the onset of shock in six, and followed shock in seven patients with shock.
In contrast, small extensions averaging 2% of LV mass were found in three, and multiple recent
infarctions in two control patients. Although progressive myocardial damage was a common
pathologic finding, it was infrequently recognized clinically. The electrocardiogram reflected evidence of recent infarction in 56%, old infarction in 31%, and extension in only 30% of patients.
These data suggest that appropriate early therapeutic intervention might limit myocardial damage by preventing extension or reinfarction. Since shock was best correlated with total LV damage, such limitation of infarction might reduce the incidence and mortality of cardiogenic shock.
Extension of infarction
therapy directed at limiting the amount of myocardial damage during the episode of acute infarction
might reduce the incidence and mortality of
cardiogenic shock.
Methods
Clinical, physiologic and postmortem studies have
been obtained in 32 patients over a two-year period.
Twenty-two patients died with cardiogenic shock
complicating acute myocardial infarction. All had intraarterial systolic pressure less than 90 mm Hg and
abnormal renal or cerebral perfusion manifested by
hourly urine flow less than 20 ml or abnormalities of
mental status. Hypovolemia was excluded either by
measurement of left ventricular filling pressure, which
exceeded 12 mm Hg whenever obtained, or by trial
expansion of intravascular volume. Severe pain, significant arrhythmias, disorders of electrolyte or acid base
balance, and abnormalities of ventilation or oxygenation
were corrected whenever possible.
The findings in the patients with shock were
compared to those of a control group, composed of ten
patients who died suddenly and unexpectedly during
convalescence in the hospital following acute myocardial infarction.
Table 1 lists characteristics of the shock and control
groups. Differences in age, time of admission to the
Cardiac Care Unit and total duration of illness between
York.
Supported by USPHS Contract PH 43-67-1439.
Address for reprints: Daniel R. Alonso, M.D., Department
of Pathology, The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical
Center, 525 East 68th Street, New York, New York 10021.
Received February 26, 1973; revision accepted for
publication April 25, 1973.
588
Sudden
death after
myocardial
infarction
22
N
10
Male
14
6
Female
8
4
Age, mean (range)
66 (50-85) 70 (57-89)
Median time from
clinical "moment of infarction"
to CCU admission, hr
6
13
Median survival after infarction,
hr
100
172
Number of patients with
complications at CCU admission
none
9
4
mild or moderate CHF
6
6
2
pulmonary edema
0
4
cardiogenic shock
0
Median time from infarction to
onset of shock, hr, (range)
66 (0-331)
Median survival after onset of
42
shock, hr
589
was
Pathologic Studies
sulcus
Figure 1
(Top) Method of sectioning the heart for quantification ot
ventricular myocardial damage. (Bottom) Method of dividing each coronal slice of myocardium into radial segments.
Five radial segments (1-5) in each of 7 coronal slices (A-G)
provide 35 standard segments comprising the entire mass of
the left ventricular myocardium.
590
ALONSO ET AL.
60
w
LU
RECENT
INTERMEDIATE
. 2
- 50
WEEKS TO 3 MONTHS)
OLD
U-1
'
Z 40
p<.001
U 30
p< 001
z
lit
20
LLJ
-:
K')
-,
ns
10
CARDIOGENIC
SHOCK n=22
Figure 2
Mean percent of left ventricular myocardial mass contained
in each of the 35 standard segments as determined from
25 normal hearts.
DIED SUDDENLY
(NON-SHOCK) n 10
=
Figure 3
Mass of left ventricular infarction in 22 patients who died
from cardiogenic shock compared to 10 with sudden death.
There is no significant difference in mass of old (clear portion
of bar) or intermediate (lightly stippled) infarction. The
highly significant difference in mass of total infarction is
explained by the much larger recent infarction (dark stippling) in the shock patients.
Circulation, Volume XLVlII, September 1973
70
60
LU
RECENT
INTERMEDIATE
CLi
591
(2 WEEKS TO 3 MONTHS)
50
OLD
U-
z 40
U30-
z
LUJ
> 20U-
LU
~10
CARDIOGENIC SHOCK
n =22
DIED SUDDENLY
(NON -SHOCK) n = 10
Figure 4
Mass of left ventricular infarction in individual patients.
Circulation, Volume XLViII, September 1973
592
ALONSO ET AL.
Table 2
of Duration of Sih~ock on Pathologic Findings
Influence
Grouip 1
shock
(duiration
2
Groulp
Rapid
demise
(dturation
12
88
12
<.001
54t
47
32
NS
NS
Prolonged
>24 hrs)
N
Mlean duration of shock,
onset to death, hr
Mass of LV inifarct,
%7C of LV
\lass of recent LV infarct.,
% of LV
Extension of infarction,
patients
Mass of extension,
%c of LV
Recent coronary artery
thrombosis, patients
Abbreviations: LV
<24
36
1.
(89%0/)
5.4
hrs)
10 (83%) NS
NS
4. 7
6 (67%)
left, ventricle, NS
10 (83%c) NS
=
not significant
70r-
60
.0
00
z
U 50
ui
00
*
0
40
z
> 30
0
e 20
10
I1
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Figure 5
Figure 6
Schematic representation of two types of extension of myocardial infarction. Type A (top) was observed at the edges
of an infarct, usually subepicardially. Type B (bottom)
occurred at the lateral margins.
Circulation, Volume XLVIII, September 1973
200
180
160
140
100
120
593
80
60
40
20
22 patients dying from cardiogenic shock. The age of infarction, extension or reinfarction was estimated by standard pathologic techniques and is shown as a range of minimum to maximum estimated age. Original infarcts have been
omitted where they occurred long before the clinical onset of shock. Table 3 s-ummarizes the relationships shown here.
Table 3
Chronologic Relationships between Infarction, Extension, Reinfarction and Shock
Clinical onset of shock:
(episodes of shock)
Extension or reinfarction
(patients)
Followed shock
Preceded shock
Occurred simultaneously with the
onset of shock
No extension or reinfarction
6
6
3
22
6
6
3
24
594
ALONSO ET AL.
ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHIC DIAGNOSIS
AND EXTENT OF INFARCTION
group,
o TRANSMURAL INFARCT
A CENTRAL
1 NON-TRANSMURAL
O SUBENDOCARDIAL J INFARCT
70r
RECENT INFARCTION
LUJ
U
W
60k
0
50k
LL
Electrocardiographic Correlations
OLD INFARCTION
40H
0
0
:D
0
0
z 30k
LU
U-
LUJ
-J
20h
0:
00
0
0
a
a
10
0
00
00
*:
0
000
00
I .
v
00
ECG DIAGNOSTIC
ECG DIAGNOSTIC
NON- DiAGNOSTIC
NON- DIAGNOSTIC
Figure
graphically.
Discussion
Table 4
Coronary Artery Pathology in Patients with Shock and
Sudden Death
Shock
1 vessel
2 vessels
3 vessels
Abbreviation. pts
pts
Co
3
7
12
14
32
54
patients.
Sudden death
pts
%
2
6
2
20
60
20
595
of renewed or protracted chest pain. Although
diagnosis of extension is infrequent, the process
may not be silent. Perhaps more frequent recording
of electrocardiograms, serial precordial ST-segment
maps or assay of serum enzymes several times daily
would improve diagnostic accuracy.
The limitations of the standard scalar electrocardiogram in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction
have been previously recognized.10' 11 In our study,
after excluding patients with left bundle branch
block and intraventricular block, old infarction
could be diagnosed in only 31% and acute infarction
in only 59% of hearts with pathologically confirmed
areas of myocardial necrosis. Our findings closely
parallel those of Levine and Phillips.12 Infarcts that
are nontransmural, diaphragmatic and posterior, or
those that comprise less than 10% of left ventricular
mass are often not apparent electrocardiographically. At least part of the difficulty is due to the fact
that a significant Q wave, evidence of a transmural
scar, is generally necessary for diagnostic certainty.
Others have noted the inadequacies of the electrocardiogram in the diagnosis of purely subendocardial infarction.10' 13 It must be recognized therefore,
that although cardiogenic shock is usually temporally related to acute infarction or recent extension,
the electrocardiogram will be of diagnostic value
only about half of the time.
There was a preponderance of patients with
disease of all three major coronary arteries in the
shock group, although three patients developed
shock with a single major coronary artery occlusion.
The frequency of coronary thrombosis encountered
in our patients with shock is comparable to that
reported by Page.8 The incidence of thrombi in the
sudden death group, higher than that reported in
other studies of sudden death,'4 is probably
explained by the fact that our group comprised
hospitalized patients who died suddenly during
convalescence, often many days following acute
infarction. Other studies of sudden death generally
deal with patients dying within a short time of the
onset of symptoms. Our inability to determine the
age of thrombus precludes any attempt to establish
a causal relationship between thrombosis and
infarction or extension of the original injury.
The apparent temporal association between
extension of infarction and the clinical onset of
shock suggests that progression of myocardial
damage plays an important role in the pathogenesis
of shock. Extension probably represents loss of
viability of an ischemic zone which surrounds the
initial infarct.'5-17 Infarction of this zone of
596
ALONSO ET AL.
References
1. SCHEIDT S, ASCHEIM R, KILLIP T: Shock after acute
myocardial infarction. Amer J Cardiol 26: 556,
1971
2. MALLORY GK, WHITE PD, SALCEDO-SALGAR J: The
speed of healing of myocardial infarction: A study of
the pathologic anatomy in seventy-two cases. Amer
Heart J 18: 647, 1939
3. LODGE-PATCH I: The ageing of cardiac infarcts and its
influence on cardiac rupture. Brit Heart J 13: 37,
1951
4. WHO SCIENTIFIC GROUP: The pathologic diagnosis of
acute ischemic heart disease. WHO Technical Report
Series No. 441. Geneva, World Health Organization,
1970
5. BLACKBURN H, KEYS A, SIMONSON E, RAUTAHARJU P,
PUSAR S: The electrocardiogram in population
studies: A classification system. Circulation 21: 1160,
1960
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