Background
Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are commonly seen in daily practice and they are associated with cardiac mortality in patients with structural heart disease. Fragmented QRS (fQRS) on surface electrocardiography (ECG) is suggested to be a sign of myocardial fibrosis and it is also associated with cardiovascular events and mortality among various cardiac diseases. Fibrosis is one of the important cause of arrhyhtmias including PVCs but there are no data to date, whether the presence of fQRS is associated with frequent PVCs.
Method
We retrospectively analysed 24 hour holter monitorings (HM) between August 2012 and february 2013. Patients with structural heart diseases like cardiomyopathies, moderate to severe valvular diseases, known coronary artery diseases were excluded. Patients with missing surface 12 lead ECG or with bundle branch blocks or on pace maker activity were also excluded. Two hundred and eightytwo patients included in the study in final. Firstly patients divided in to 2 groups with respect to presence of fQRS and than divided in to 3 groups with respect to frequency of PVCs while group 1 representing the patients with seldom PVCs (<5 PVCs per hour), group 2 moderate PVCs (5-30 PVCs per hour) and frequent PVCs (>30 PVCs per hour). We investigated that whether the presence of fQRS is associated with frequency of PVCs by using multivariate logistic regression analysis.
Method
We retrospectively analysed 24 hour holter monitorings (HM) between August 2012 and february 2013. Patients with structural heart diseases like cardiomyopathies, moderate to severe valvular diseases, known coronary artery diseases were excluded. Patients with missing surface 12 lead ECG or with bundle branch blocks or on pace maker activity were also excluded. Two hundred and eightytwo patients included in the study in final. Firstly patients divided in to 2 groups with respect to presence of fQRS and than divided in to 3 groups with respect to frequency of PVCs while group 1 representing the patients with seldom PVCs (<5 PVCs per hour), group 2 moderate PVCs (5-30 PVCs per hour) and frequent PVCs (>30 PVCs per hour). We investigated that whether the presence of fQRS is associated with frequency of PVCs by using multivariate logistic regression analysis.
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