Performance of electrocardiographic criteria for detecting LVH in hypertensive Africans.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: To evaluate the performance of the currently accepted LVH electrocardiographic (ECG) criteria from ethnic-specific normal values. METHODS AND RESULTS: We included 309 hypertensive subjects with both ECG (12­leads device) and echocardiographic analysis. The diagnosis of LVH was established by echocardiography from specific norms. Current ECG criteria for the diagnosis of LVH have low performances. Area Under Curve of Sokolow-Lyon, Peguero-Lo Presti, Cornell voltage and Cornell Product were respectively 0.61, 0.65, 0.72 and 0.71. CONCLUSION: In hypertensive African, the most accurate criterion for diagnosing LVH is Cornell voltage.