Background— The sympathetic activation that follows acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Because the prognosis after anterior AMI (ant-AMI) is worse than that after inferior AMI (inf-AMI), we planned to determine whether the magnitude of sympathetic hyperactivity differs between the two.

Methods and Results— Thirty-nine patients with uncomplicated AMI, comprising 2 matched groups of 17 patients with ant-AMI, and 22 patients with inf-AMI were examined. Measurements were obtained 2 to 4 days after AMI and compared with 20 normal subjects (NC) who were matched in terms of age and body weight to the AMI groups. Resting muscle sympathetic nerve activity was quantified from multiunit bursts (MSNA) and from single units (s-MSNA). Both groups of AMI patients were matched with regard to hemodynamic variables, left ventricular function, and infarct size. Both groups had greater (at least P<0.01) sympathetic nerve activity than NC (60±4.3 bursts/100 cardiac beats and 68±4.9 impulses/100 cardiac beats), but the magnitude of sympathetic nerve hyperactivity in ant-AMI (81±4.0 bursts/100 cardiac beats and 91±4.9 impulses/100 cardiac beats) was similar (P>0.05) to that in inf-AMI (80±3.2 bursts/100 cardiac beats and 90±4.0 impulses/100 cardiac beats)

Conclusions— Both ant-AMI and inf-AMI resulted primarily in a similar magnitude of sympathetic nerve hyperactivity. These findings suggest that the worse prognosis after ant-AMI compared with after inf-AMI would not be related primarily to the degree of sympathetic hyperactivity.