Lancet
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Experimental evidence suggests that autonomic markers such as heart-rate variability and baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) may contribute to postinfarction risk stratification. There are clinical data to support this concept for heart-rate variability. The main objective of the ATRAMI study was to provide prospective data on the additional and independent prognostic value for cardiac mortality of heart-rate variability and BRS in patients after myocardial infarction in whom left-ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and ventricular arrhythmias were known. ⋯ ATRAMI provides clinical evidence that after myocardial infarction the analysis of vagal reflexes has significant prognostic value independently of LVEF and of ventricular arrhythmias and that it significantly adds to the prognostic value of heart-rate variability.