Medical News: AHA: EKG Pattern Linked to Cardiac Death in General Population – in Meeting Coverage, AHA from MedPage Today

During a mean follow-up of 30 years, 56.5% of the participants died. About a third of the deaths (32.1%) were attributed to cardiac causes. Of those, 40.4% were from sudden arrhythmia.

 

As in individuals with a J-point elevation of at least 0.1 mV, those with an elevation of greater than 0.2 mV in the inferior leads had an increased risk of death from cardiac causes (RR 2.98, 95% CI 1.85 to 4.92) and from sudden arrhythmia (RR 2.92, 95% CI 1.45 to 5.89).

Nearly half of those with an elevation of more than 0.2 mV (47.2%) died from cardiac causes, compared with 17.2% among those who did not have the early repolarization pattern (P<0.001).