Usefulness of compensatory hyperkinesis in the noninfarcted left ventricular wall in separating single from multivessel coronary artery disease in patients with initial ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction.

We assessed the contractility of the contralateral wall on 2-dimensional echocardiography in 50 patients with an initial ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction who underwent coronary angiography. Compensatory hyperkinesis, which we defined as a fractional thickening of >/=60% in the contralateral wall, was a strong predictor of single-vessel coronary artery disease, with a positive predictive value of 85%.