Heart Rate and Rhythm Alterations While Performing Rectal Temperature Measurements on Patients with Acute Posterior Myocardial Infarction
Abstract
Fourteen diagnosed acute posterior myocardial infarction patients were studied to determine if the rectal temperature measurement procedure caused sufficient vagal stimulation to initiate a vagal reflex. The sample had a mean age of sixty years, and all subjects were admitted within twelve hours of the onset of myocardial infarction symptoms. Subjects were studied between twenty-nine and forty-nine hours after the onset of symptoms. Heart rates and number of ectopic beats were continuously recorded via electrocardiographic rhythm strip during the five phase rectal temperature measurement procedure. Using the two-way analysis of variance, it was determined that there was no significant difference between the mean heart rates or the mean number of ectopic beats for the five phases of the procedure. The rectal temperature procedure did not cause sufficient vagal stimulation to initiate a vagal reflex among fourteen acute posterior myocardial infarction patients.