To differentiate between various forms of cardiogenic shock (CS) and to elaborate the criteria of its prognosis, the authors examined 284 patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) and 30 patients of the control group for the peculiarities of the clinical course of the disease in relation to changes in the hemodynamic parameters and oxygen supply to the tissues. CS was shown to develop more frequently in patients over 64 years of age, with a history of MI and with signs of chronic circulation insufficiency of IIA stage. Late CS more commonly took the true form and was associated with a MI relapse. Reflex CS was characterized by the hyperkinetic variant of the hemodynamics while an arrhythmic one by the congestive variant. Patients with the authentic form of CS were divided into 3 subgroups with different hemodynamic reactions to sympathomimetic amines. In the first day of the disease the coefficient of the tissue extraction of oxygen serves as a significant prognostic criterion which should be determined along with the dynamic measurement of the pump and contractile functions of the heart.