title: Prognostic significance of fragmented QRS in patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction: results of a 1-year, single-center follow-up.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of fragmented QRS (fQRS) among non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The fQRS on standard 12-lead ECGs in 179 patients (63% males, mean age 60.9 ± 12.3 years) were analyzed. Cardiac events and cardiac mortality were regarded as two outcomes to determine whether fQRS was a clinical prognostic factor; its prognostic value was then assessed adjusting for other covariates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cardiac mortality (18 (17.0%) vs. 4 (5.5%)) and major cardiac event rate (46 (43.4%) vs. 22 (30.1%)) were higher in the fQRS group compared with the non-fQRS group during a mean follow-up of 12 months. A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed significantly lower event-free survival for cardiac events (p = 0.030) and cardiac mortality (p = 0.020). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that significant fQRS was an independent significant predictor for cardiac events and cardiac mortality.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that the occurrence of fQRS in the ECG is a powerful predictor of decreased survival in NSTEMI. The prognostic importance of fQRS was incremental to clinical and conventional factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, 301 Yanchang Road, 200072, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality*; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate