title: Incidence and prediction of induced ventricular tachyarrhythmias in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.
abstract: The value of time-domain and spectral turbulence analyses of the signal-averaged electrocardiogram (SAECG) for predicting induction of sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT) was prospectively investigated in 70 patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Sustained VT was induced in 9 patients (13%). The prevalence of abnormal time-domain and spectral analyses was 16 and 37%, respectively. The total predictive accuracy of time-domain and spectral analyses for VT induction was 86 and 67%, respectively (p < 0.01). The predictive accuracy of time-domain and spectral analysis was similar in patients without an intraventricular conduction defect (94 and 84%, respectively). However, the predictive accuracy of time-domain was higher than that of spectral analysis in patients with an intraventricular conduction defect (65 vs 25%; p < 0.05). The poor concordance between spectral analysis and programmed stimulation results was mainly due to the high number of false-positive recordings in the presence of an intraventricular conduction defect (9 of 20 cases). With the use of stepwise discriminant function analysis, an abnormal time-domain SAECG was the only variable predicting the induction of sustained VT (p < 0.0003). In dilated cardiomyopathy, an abnormal time-domain SAECG and induced sustained VT are rare, both time-domain signal-averaged electrocardiography and spectral analysis have a high predictive accuracy for VT induction in patients without an intraventricular conduction defect, and spectral analysis does not improve VT prediction in those with a conduction defect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, State University of New York, Health Science Center, Brooklyn 11203.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Turitto
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Ahuja
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bekheit
authors.forename: E B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Caref
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: el-Sherif
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial; D002311:Cardiomyopathy, Dilated / Q000150:complications*; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*