Assessment of a new electrocardiographic criterion for the diagnosis of left ventricle hypertrophy: A prospective validation study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Many criteria have been developed to predict left ventricular hypertrophy using an electrocardiogram (ECG).However, one major common limitation of all has been their low sensitivity. Based on that, recently, a novel criterion has beenproposed, which is believed to have higher sensitivity without a compromise in specificity. Therefore, in our study, we aimedto test this novel ECG criterion prospectively in large, unselected cardiac patients.METHODS: Patients who were referred to our echocardiography laboratory due to various etiologies were prospectivelyenrolled. The novel Peguero-Lo Presti criterion was assessed along with other established ECG criteria. The left ventricularmass index was calculated using echocardiography. The performance of each index was evaluated.RESULTS: Overall, 767 patients were enrolled in this study. The sensitivity and specificity of the Peguero-Lo Presti criterionwere 17.5% and 94.5%, respectively. Although the highest sensitivity belonged to the Peguero-Lo Presti criterion, in ROCanalysis, it showed modest predictive capability, which was similar to the established Cornell voltage criterion (AUC=0.64[0.56–0.68 95% CI], p