REDUCED OCCURRENCE OF ATRIAL-FIBRILLATION IN ACUTE MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION TREATED WITH STREPTOKINASE

In a hisiorical follow-up study of 152 hospital patients with acute myocardial infarction, the frequency of life-threatening arrhythmias (ventricular fibrillation, sustained ventricular tachycardia, 3rd degree AV-block, 2nd degree AV-block (Mobitz type II), and asystole) and atrialfibrillation in 76 patients treated with streptokinase was compared with their frequency in 76 patients who did not receive a thrombolytic therapy.Among those treated with streptokinase two patients (3%) developed atrial fibrillation, compared with 12 (16%) in the control group (P=0·009 Life-threatening arrhythmias occurred with equal frequency in the two groups. Further studies should confirm and clar the mechanism of the reduced frequency of a trial fibrillation in the streptokinase-treated patients. © 1991 The European Society of Cardiology.