Electrocardiography in the diagnosis of ventricular hypertrophy in patients with chronic renal disease.
BACKGROUND
Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an independent predictor of cardiovascular risk, and its characterization and prevalence in chronic renal disease (CRD) should be further studied.


OBJECTIVE
To establish the diagnosis of LVH in patients with stage-5 CRD using six different electrocardiographic criteria, and to correlate them with left ventricular mass index (LVMI) as obtained by echocardiography.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study including 100 patients (58 men and 42 women, mean age 46.2 + or - 14.0 years) with CRD of all causes undergoing hemodialysis (HD) for at least six months. Electrocardiography (ECG) and echocardiography were performed in all patients, always up to one hour after the end of the HD sessions.


RESULTS
LVH was detected in 83 patients (83%), of whom 56 (67.4%) had the concentric pattern and 27 (32.6%) the eccentric pattern of LVH. Diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of all the electrocardiographic methods studied were higher than 50%. Using Pearson's linear correlation for LVMI, only the Sokolow-Lyon voltage criterion did not show a > or = 0.50 coefficient. Calculation of the likelihood ratio, in turn, showed that ECG has a discriminatory power for the diagnosis of LVH in the population studied, with emphasis on the Cornell-product and Romhilt-Estes criteria. No correlation was observed between LVMI and QTc and QTc dispersion.


CONCLUSIONS
ECG is a useful, efficient, and highly reproducible method for the diagnosis of LVH in HD patients. In this population, the Cornell-product proved to be the most reliable criterion for the detection of LVH.
Costa
Francisco de Assis
Fde A
Universidade Estadual de Ciências da Saúde de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, USA. facosta@cardiol.br
Rivera
Ivan Romero
IR
Vasconcelos
Mirian Lira Castro de
ML
Costa
André Falcão Pedrosa
AF
Póvoa
Rui Manoel dos Santos
RM
Bombig
Maria Tereza Nogueira
MT
Luna Filho
Bráulio
B
Lima
Valter Correia de
VC
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014463:Ultrasonography; D055815:Young Adult