Prevalence of Preexcitation in a Young Population of Male Swiss Conscripts

Abstract

Sudden cardiac death can be the first clinical presentation of asymptomatic ventricular preexcitation. Recent data about prevalence of preexcitation in the electrocardiograms (ECG) of the general population are scarce. The aim of the present study was to analyze the prevalence of preexcitation in a contemporary population of young conscripts. We reanalyzed all consecutive ECGs of Swiss citizens who underwent conscription for the army between March 1, 2004, and July 31,2006. All ECGs with the diagnosis preexcitation were included in the present study. We analyzed ECGs of 41,699 male conscripts. Mean age was 19.2 ± 1.1 years. Preexcitation was found in 53 individuals. The length of the delta wave was 46 ± 10 ms. The most frequent localization of the accessory pathway was the left free wall. The prevalence of preexcitation in young, predominantly male conscripts is 0.13%. This is comparable with previous findings in children.