title: The body surface QRST isointegral maps in infants with right ventricular overload.
abstract: Electrocardiographic criteria for right ventricular (RV) hypertrophy in infants generally exhibit low sensitivity in terms of diagnostic accuracy. We studied the QRST isointegral map (QRST-Imap) of body surface potential distribution for the diagnosis of RV overload in patients less than 2 years old. Patients with atrial septal defect (ASD), pulmonary stenosis (PS) and tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) were examined (RV overload group) and the findings of their QRST-Imaps were compared to those of age-matched healthy infants (NOR). QRST-Imaps in RV overload showed abnormal findings, with two maxima or a rightward shift of the maximum with increased amplitude, in contrast to one maximum at the left anterior chest with a single dipole pattern in the NOR group. ASD patients had two maxima with a decreased integral value between them. In PS, two maxima were also observed, with increased integral values of the right maximum as the RV systolic pressure was elevated. TOF patients showed a single maximum shifted to the anterior median line with increased amplitude. These results indicate that the findings of QRST-Imaps are of value in detecting the presence and pattern of RV overload in infants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Izumida
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kiyohara
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Asano
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsuchiya
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hosaki
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawano
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sawanobori
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hiraoka
mesh_terms: D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D017380:Hypertrophy, Right Ventricular / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn