The significance of T-wave inversion in sinus beats following ventricular extrasystoles

Abstract

Heart disease was present in 93 per cent of a series of forty-six patients encountered at the Mayo Clinic who had inversion of the T waves in the sinus beats following ventricular extrasystoles. In 63 per cent of these patients, the electrocardiograms were otherwise normal or showed only minor associated abnormalities. The incidence of heart disease in a control group of patients, matched in regard to age and sex with the above group, who had frequent ventricular extrasystoles without changes in the T waves, was 57 per cent. Four patients who had bundle branch block showed normal intraventricular conduction with inversion of the T waves in the sinus beats immediately following ventricular extrasystoles. One patient who had dystrophia myotonica showed electrocardiographic abnormalities as well as inversion of the T waves following ventricular extrasystoles.