Role of Early Repolarization Pattern in Increasing Risk of Death.
BACKGROUND
An early repolarization pattern (ERP) has been hypothesized to be arrhythmogenic in experimental studies, but the prognostic significance of the ERP in the general population is controversial. We performed a meta-analysis to examine the link between ERP and the risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), cardiac death, and death from any cause.


RESULTS
We performed a literature search using MEDLINE (January 1, 1966 to July 31, 2015) and EMBASE (January 1, 1980 to July 31, 2015) with no restrictions. Studies that reported relative risk (RR) estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations of interest were included. Sixteen studies involving 334 524 subjects were identified. Compared with those without ERP, subjects with ERP experienced significantly increased risk for developing SCA (RR 2.18; 95% CI 1.29-3.68), cardiac death (RR 1.48; 95% CI 1.06-2.07), and death from any cause (RR 1.21; 95% CI 1.02-1.42), respectively. The increased risk was present predominantly in Asians and whites but not in African Americans. ERP with J-point elevation in inferior leads, notching configuration, and horizontal or descending ST segment connote higher risk. ERP was associated with an absolute risk increase of 139.6 (95% CI 130.3-149.3) additional SCAs per 100 000 person-years and responsible for 7.3% (95% CI 1.9-15.2) of SCA in the general population.


CONCLUSIONS
ERP is associated with significant increased risk for SCA, cardiac death, and death from any cause. Future studies should focus on understanding the exact mechanisms for the arrhythmia risk and developing reliable tools for risk stratification.
Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Yun-Jiu
YJ
Cheng
Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Xiao-Xiong
XX
Lin
Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Cheng-Cheng
CC
Ji
Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Xu-Miao
XM
Chen
Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Li-Juan
LJ
Liu
Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Kai
K
Tang
Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China wusuhua@hotmail.com.
Su-Hua
SH
Wu
cardiac death; early repolarization pattern; meta‐analysis; risk; sudden cardiac arrest
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