title: Prevalence of electrocardiographic abnormalities in a middle-aged, biracial population: Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Few studies to date have described the prevalence of electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormalities in a biracial middle-aged cohort.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants underwent measurement of traditional risk factors and 12-lead ECGs coded using both Minnesota Code and Novacode criteria. Among 2585 participants, of whom 57% were women and 44% were black (mean age 45 years), the prevalence of major and minor abnormalities was significantly higher (all P < .001) among black men and women compared to whites. These differences were primarily due to higher QRS voltage and ST/T-wave abnormalities among blacks. There was also a higher prevalence of Q waves (Minnesota Code 1-1, 1-2, 1-3) than described by previous studies. These racial differences remained after multivariate adjustment for traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Black men and women have a significantly higher prevalence of ECG abnormalities, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors, than whites in a contemporary cohort of middle-aged participants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine and Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prineas
authors.forename: Martha L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Daviglus
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ning
authors.forename: Kiang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Cora E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sidney
authors.forename: Pamela J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Schreiner
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Iribarren
authors.forename: Donald M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Lloyd-Jones
mesh_terms: D044383:Black People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001741:Black or African American