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In a series of 523 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) 112 died; among these were 18 with rupture of the free wall of the left ventricle (HR) (group RU); two other cohorts were formed: one sample of all patients with acute (transmural) myocardial infarction (group KO) and another cohort of death of AMI in 1976 (EX). 1. patients with HR are significantly older than the KO group; there is no difference in age compared to the patients who died of AMI other than HR (group EX). 2. Women with AMI have a higher chance to die of HR than men. 3. The RU group has significantly more often clinical signs of congestive heart failure than the control group. 4. Cardiogenic shock is significantly more frequent in the RU-group than in the control group. 5. All deaths (EX + RU) have worse hemodynamic data than the control group (KO). 6. Elevated blood pressure (before and after AMI) could not be identified as a risk factor for HR in our patients. 7. In the course of AMI, death in pump failure occurs significantly later than heart rupture.

29 patients with acute myocardial infarction were subdivided into 3 groups using the information gained by continuous measurement of the pulmonary artery end-diastolic pressure (PAEDP) during a stay of 3 to 5 days in the coronary care unit of this hospital. Group I comprised patients with a PAEDP of below 12 mm Hg (without treatment), group II those with a PAEDP of between 12 and 20 mm Hg and group III those patients with a PAEDP of above 20 mm Hg. 3 to 6 months after rehabilitation and ambulant ""coronary training'' a follow-up control PAEDP measurement was performed at rest and during ergometric stress with the bicycle exercise test. 2 out of the 15 patients in group I had a pathological PAEDP at rest, whilst exercise of 50 watts raised the PAEDP to pathological values in 40% of this group of patients. Group II: 58% of the patients with an initially-raised PAEDP showed a normal value at follow-up examination 3 months subsequently. Exercise of 50 watts raised the PAEDP to pathological values in 66% of the patients in this group. Group III. The pathologically high PAEDP recordings at rest made it impossible to subject these patients to stress with the bicycle ergometer. The prognostic value of the classification of patients with myocardial infarction into pressure groups and the importance of PAEDP follow-up measurements on patients after myocardial infarction at rest and after ergometric stress are discussed.