Right ventricular infarction in association with inferior myocardial infarction

Objectives: to assess the frequency of right ventricular infarction (rvi) in patients with inferior myocardial infarction (mi). material and methods: this is a single centre discriptive study carried out at afic/nihd rawalpindi,pakistan. one hundred patients with acute inferior mi were selected excluding those with preinfarction arrhythmias.specific clinical findings of hypotension,raised jugular venous pulse(jvp),clear lung fields,kussmaul's venous sign and tricuspid regurgitation(tr) were noted for each patient. a 12-lead ecg followed by additional leads of rv4,rv5 and rv6 were done along with 2-d echocardiography for ventricular dilatation,wall asynergy and abnormal inter-ventricular septum (ivs) motion. results: rvi was present in 29 (29%) patients.there is no impact of age,gender and risk factors on the incidence of rvi in inferior mi. out of these 29,the classic triad of hypotension,raised jugular venous pressure (jvp) and clear lung fields was present in 9(31%) cases,raised jvp with clear lung fields was present in 23(80%) patients. kussmaul's venous sign and tricuspid regurgitation (tr) were present in 11(38%) and 17(59%) patients respectively. rvi was confirmed by 2d echocardiography. conclusion: rvi is not uncommon in patients with inferior mi.