BACKGROUND: Autonomic markers, such as heart rate variability (HRV), heart rate turbulence (HRT), and baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) provide information on the risk of all-cause mortality after an acute myocardial infarction (AMI), but their value in predicting nonfatal cardiac events is not well known. METHODS: A consecutive series of 675 patients with an AMI were followed up to 30 months. At baseline, the patients underwent a 24-hour Holter recording, and assessment of BRS using phenylephrine test. Several parameters of HRV and HRT were determined. RESULTS: After the follow-up, 98 patients (15%) had a nonfatal acute coronary event. Among the studied variables, the short-term scaling exponent alpha1 (P = 0.002), power-law slope beta (P = 0.008), low-frequency component of HRV power spectrum (P
