Recurrent ischemia after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has been largely associated with a poor prognosis. This study was carried out to analyze the relationship among different clinical variables and both postinfarction angina and reinfarction after AMI. A total of 452 consecutive patients (mean age 58.2 +/- 12 years) were admitted to the coronary care unit and were studied prospectively. More than half of the patients received some type of thrombolytic therapy. Death occurred in 45 patients (9.9%) during hospital stay. Postinfarction angina was diagnosed in 81 patients (17.9%) and reinfarction in 22 (4.9%). Patients who developed reinfarction had a high mortality rate (45.5%) compared with those who did not develop such an event (8.1%) (p < 0.0001; odds ratio: 9.4; 95% confidence interval 3.5-25.4). On the other hand, postinfarction angina had no significant association with mortality. Multivariate analysis revealed that a history of angina (> 1 week) was predictive of the occurrence of postinfarction angina and that the use of fibrinolytic treatment, prodromal symptoms, and postinfarction angina were significantly related to reinfarction. We conclude that several simple clinical variables are clear independent predictors of postinfarction angina and reinfarction following AMI and should be taken into account in routine clinical practice or when planning intervention trials.