Postmyocardial infarction patients susceptible to ventricular tachycardia show increased T wave dispersion independent of delayed ventricular conduction.
BACKGROUND
Experimentally, both delayed ventricular conduction and nonhomogeneous ventricular repolarization contribute to reentrant arrhythmias. We tested the hypothesis that increased T wave dispersion is independent of delayed ventricular conduction associated with arrhythmia vulnerability in postmyocardial infarction (post-MI) patients.


RESULTS
We studied 32 post-MI patients with clinical or inducible monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT group), 28 post-MI patients without arrhythmias (MI group), and 13 healthy controls, using magnetocardiographic (MCG) mapping with signal averaging. Twelve-lead ECG was the reference. Filtered QRS duration (fQRS) and T wave peak to T wave end interval (TPE) were used as measures of ventricular conduction and nonhomogeneity in ventricular repolarization, respectively. In MCG, the VT group showed the longest fQRS (135+/-34 msec vs 114+/-22 msec in the MI group; P = 0.012). Mean TPE and maximum TPE in VT versus MI groups were 78+/-9 msec versus 70+/-6 msec (P < 0.001) and 117+/-23 msec versus 104+/-19 msec (P = 0.020), respectively. Maximum TPE did not correlate with fQRS in the VT group (r = 0.063; P = NS) but did correlate in the MI group (r = 0.396; P = 0.037). For identification of post-MI patients prone to VT, selection of cutoff values for fQRS >140 msec and mean TPE >81 msec gave sensitivity and specificity of 41% and 89%, and 31% and 96%, respectively. Their combination increased sensitivity to 63% while maintaining 89% specificity.


CONCLUSIONS
Post-MI patients susceptible to VT show increased T wave dispersion independent of delayed ventricular conduction.
Oikarinen
L
L
Department of Medicine, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland. lasse.oikarinen@kolumbus.fi
Viitasalo
M
M
Korhonen
P
P
Väänänen
H
H
Hänninen
H
H
Montonen
J
J
Mäkijärvi
M
M
Katila
T
T
Toivonen
L
L
D000368:Aged; D004198:Disease Susceptibility / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena; D005260:Female; D006329:Heart Conduction System / Q000502:physiology*; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*