title: QT dispersion in adult hypertensives.
abstract: Increased QT dispersion is associated with sudden cardiac death in congestive cardiac failure, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and following myocardial infarction. Patients with hypertension--in particular, those with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH)--are also at greater risk of sudden cardiac death. We examined whether QT dispersion, which is easily obtained from a routine ECG, correlates with LVH. One-hundred untreated patients with systemic hypertension and 78 normotensives had QT dispersion measured manually from a surface 12-lead electrocardiogram and two-dimensional echocardiography performed to measure interventricular septal thickness, posterior wall thickness and left ventricular internal diameter. Office blood pressure was also recorded. Multivariate analysis demonstrated significant relationships between QT dispersion and office systolic blood pressure, and left ventricular mass index. Manual measurement of QT dispersion might be a simple, noninvasive screening procedure to identify those hypertensives at greatest risk of sudden cardiac death in a third-world country.
authors.affiliation: muhds_isa@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Isa Muhammad
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Sani
authors.forename: Danbauchi Sulei
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: Oyati Albert
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Imhogene
authors.forename: Alhassan Muhammad
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Garko Sani
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Bala
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000208:ethnology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000208:ethnology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria; D012307:Risk Factors