Electrocardiographic changes during exercise in asymptomatic men: 3-year follow-up.
Electrocardiographic (ECG) changes during maximal bicycle exercise and risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) were studied in 510 male civic employees who were followed for 3 years. Clinical CHD developed in 15 (24.6 percent) of the 61 men with an ischemic exercise ECG on the initial examination and in 11 (2.4 percent) of the 449 subjects with a normal initial exercise ECG. A normal maximal exercise ECG is no guarantee that severe CHD does not exist and that a subject will not soon sustain major myocardial damage; and an ischemic exercise ECG does not necessarily indicate underlying CHD. In the former group angina was the most frequent clinical CHD episode; in the latter group, infarction. Among those with an abnormal initial exercise ECG, CHD was most likely to develop in association with a poor exercise capacity. Subjects with subsequent clinical CHD and those with abnormal ECGs after 3 years tended to have a higher frequency of risk factors; subjects whose abnormal ECGs reverted to normal after 3 years tended to have a lower frequency of risk factors.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000787:Angina Pectoris / Q000175:diagnosis; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003331:Coronary Vessels; D003645:Death, Sudden; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007511:Ischemia; D008297:Male; D008350:Manitoba; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D005082:Physical Exertion