Frequency of Right Ventricular Infarction in Patients with Acute Inferior Wall Myocardial Infarction Presenting At a Tertiary Care Hospital, Peshawar

Abstract

Objectives: Right ventricular infraction has prognostic significance in the setting of acute “inferior wall myocardial infarction (IWMI)”, this research is intended to determine the frequency of “right ventricular infarction (RVI)” in patients with acute IWMI.

Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study took place at a tertiary care hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan. The study included consecutive patients who were diagnosed with acute IWMI. The presence of RVI was determined based on specific ECG findings showing >1.0mm ST segment elevation on right-sided chest leads.

Results: In a sample of 150 patients, 87 (58%) were male. The average age of the patients was 61 ± 10.7 years. Among the patients, 111 (74%) had hypertension, 64 (42.7%) were diabetic, and 45 (30%) were smokers. A body mass index (BMI) exceeding 25 kg/m² was observed in 83 (55.3%) patients. RVI was observed in 62 (41.3%) of the patients. The occurrence of RVI did not show statistically significant differences between males and females (41.4% vs. 41.3%; p=0.989), hypertensive and non-hypertensive individuals (41.4% vs. 41.0%; p=0.964), diabetics and non-diabetics (42.2% vs. 40.7%; p=0.855), smokers and non-smokers (42.2% vs. 41.0%; p=0.885), and patients with BMI ≤25 kg/m² and >25 kg/m² (41.8% vs. 41.0%; p=0.920), respectively.

Conclusion: Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that RVI is a relatively common occurrence in patients with acute IWMI, as it was observed in more than 40% of the patients studied. However, no statistically significant association exists between RVI and various demographic and clinical factors.