Abstract
The changes that left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) induces in depolarization and repolarization vectors are well known. We analyzed the performance of the electrocardiographic and vectorcardiographic transverse planes (TP in the ECG and XZ in the VCG) and frontal planes (FP in the ECG and XY in the VCG) to discriminate LVH patients from control subjects. In an age-balanced set of 58 patients, the directions and amplitudes of QRS-complexes and T-wave vectors were studied. The repolarization vector significantly decreased in modulus from controls to LVH in the transverse plane (TP: 0.45±0.17mV vs. 0.24±0.13mV, p<0.0005; XZ: 0.43±0.16mV vs. 0.26±0.11mV, p<0.005) while the depolarization vector significantly changed in angle in the electrocardiographic frontal plane (Controls vs. LVH, FP: 48.24±33.66° vs. 46.84±35.44°, p<0.005, XY: 20.28±35.20° vs. 19.35±12.31°, NS). Several LVH indexes were proposed combining such information in both ECG and VCG spaces. A subset of all those indexes with AUC values greater than 0.7 was further studied. This subset comprised four indexes, with three of them belonging to the ECG space. Two out of the four indexes presented the best ROC curves (AUC values: 0.78 and 0.75, respectively). One index belonged to the ECG space and the other one to the VCG space. Both indexes showed a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 70%. In conclusion, the proposed indexes can favorably complement LVH diagnosis
Highlights
left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) indexes based only on the electrocardiogram are known to present low sensitivity and high specificity
The repolarization vector significantly decreased in modulus from controls to LVH in the transverse plane (TP: 0.45±0.17mV vs. 0.24±0.13mV, p
LVH indexes based on amplitude and angle relationships of the above calculated vectors and their corresponding Receiver Operative Characteristic (ROC) curves and areas were computed
Summary
LVH indexes based only on the electrocardiogram are known to present low sensitivity and high specificity. It is well known that repolarization is modified with LVH [1, 2, 3], attempts to include this information in electrocardiographic indexes [4] fell into disuse, focusing all efforts on different features of the depolarization phase [5, 6]. Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.