Validation of electrocardiographic criteria for identifying left ventricular dysfunction in patients with previous myocardial infarction

Gopi Krishna Panicker, Dhiraj D Narula, Christine M Albert, Daniel C Lee, Snehal Kothari, Jeffrey J Goldberger, Nancy Cook, Andi Schaechter, Eunjung Kim, M Vinayaga Moorthy, Julie Pester, Neal A Chatterjee, Alan H Kadish, Dilip R Karnad, Gopi Krishna Panicker, Dhiraj D Narula, Christine M Albert, Daniel C Lee, Snehal Kothari, Jeffrey J Goldberger, Nancy Cook, Andi Schaechter, Eunjung Kim, M Vinayaga Moorthy, Julie Pester, Neal A Chatterjee, Alan H Kadish, Dilip R Karnad

Abstract

Background: Eleven criteria correlating electrocardiogram (ECG) findings with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) have been previously published. These have not been compared head-to-head in a single study. We studied their value as a screening test to identify patients with reduced LVEF estimated by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging.

Methods: ECGs and CMR from 548 patients (age 61 + 11 years, 79% male) with previous myocardial infarction (MI), from the DETERMINE and PRE-DETERMINE studies, were analyzed. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of each criterion for identifying patients with LVEF ≤ 30% and ≤ 40% were studied. A useful screening test should have high sensitivity and NPV.

Results: Mean LVEF was 40% (SD = 11%); 264 patients (48.2%) had LVEF ≤ 40%, and 96 patients (17.5%) had LVEF ≤ 30%. Six of 11 criteria were associated with a significant lower LVEF, but had poor sensitivity to identify LVEF ≤ 30% (range 2.1%-55.2%) or LVEF ≤ 40% (1.1%-51.1%); NPVs were good for LVEF ≤ 30% (range 82.8%-85.9%) but not for LVEF ≤ 40% (range 52.1%-60.6%). Goldberger's third criterion (RV4/SV4 < 1) and combinations of maximal QRS duration > 124 ms + either Goldberger's third criterion or Goldberger's first criterion (SV1 or SV2 + RV5 or RV6 ≥ 3.5 mV) had high specificity (95.4%-100%) for LVEF ≤ 40%, although seen in only 48 (8.8%) patients; predictive values were similar on subgroup analysis.

Conclusions: None of the ECG criteria qualified as a good screening test. Three criteria had high specificity for LVEF ≤ 40%, although seen in < 9% of patients. Whether other ECG criteria can better identify LV dysfunction remains to be determined.

Keywords: cardiac magnetic resonance imaging; coronary artery disease; electrocardiology; left ventricular ejection fraction; myocardial infarction.

Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

© 2020 The Authors. Annals of Noninvasive Electrocardiology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of left ventricular ejection fraction estimated from cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging in 548 patients included for the evaluation of ECG criteria
Figure 2
Figure 2
Negative predictive value (NPV), positive predictive value (PPV), specificity, and sensitivity and for each of the ECG criteria with LVEF cutoff of 30% (Panel a) and LVEF cutoff of 40% (Panel b). (N = 548)

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