title: Relationship between giant negative T-wave and severity of apical hypertrophy in patients with apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was aimed at evaluating the usefulness of giant negative T-wave (GNT) as an index of apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (ACM) severity and as a better echocardiographic index to represent apical hypertrophy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-five patients who were recently diagnosed with ACM by echocardiography were enrolled in this study. ACM patients were divided into two groups: group 1 (ACM with GNT) and group 2 (ACM without GNT). To evaluate ACM severity, apical wall thickness (A-WT) and apical cross-sectional muscle area (A-CSMA) were measured by echocardiography.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-seven patients (36%) had GNT. The maximal A-WT of groups 1 and 2 was 19.7 ± 2.4 and 18.6 ± 2.0 mm, P = 0.027, respectively. In addition, the maximal A-CSMA differed significantly between groups 1 and 2 (14.2 ± 1.8 vs. 11.8 ± 1.9 cm(2) , P < 0.001). In the correlation analysis, T(max) showed a stronger correlation with A-CSMA than with A-WT (r = 0.599 vs. r = 0.291).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that the presence of GNT in ACM patients may represent more severe apical hypertrophy. Furthermore, A-CSMA may be a more reliable ACM severity index than A-WT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dong-A University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Sun-Yi
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Tae-Ho
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Jung-Hwan
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hee-Kyung
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Baek
authors.forename: Jeong-Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: Woo-Jae
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Kwang-Soo
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Cha
authors.forename: Moo-Hyun
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Young-Dae
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002312:Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic