title: Association of ventricular premature complexes with electrocardiographic-estimated left ventricular mass in a population of African-American and white men and women (The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities.
abstract: Increased left ventricular (LV) mass is often found in adults and is a powerful predictor of cardiovascular mortality. To test the hypothesis that an electrocardiographic estimate of LV mass--the Cornell voltage--is associated with ventricular premature complexes (VPCs) in free-living adults, a cross-sectional analysis of the predictors of VPCs on a 2-minute rhythm strip in a population-based sample of 13,606 middle-aged, African-American and white men and women from 4 US communities in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study baseline examinations was performed. In adults without known coronary artery disease, the prevalence of VPCs increases monotonically with increasd Cornell voltages within ethnicity and gender groups. Independent of systemic hypertension, serum electrolytes, age, heart rate, educational attainment, gender, and ethnicity, a millivolt increase in Cornell voltage was associated with a 20% to 30% increase in the prevalence odds ratio of VPCs on the 2-minute electrocardiogram. Thus, Cornell voltage is associated with VPCs on a 2-minute electrocardiogram. The association is consistent in African-Americans, whites, men, and women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 27599-7075, USA. rsimpson@med.unc.edu
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: W E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Cascio
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Crow
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Schreiner
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Rautaharju
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Heiss
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D044383:Black People; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012737:Sex Factors; D018879:Ventricular Premature Complexes / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American