Index of T:wave Variation as a Predictor of Sudden Cardiac Death in Chronic Heart Failure Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

Abstract

Chronic heart failure (CHF) and atrial fibrillation (AF) are worldwide leading causes of morbidity and mortality in elders, a large part due to sudden cardiac deaths (SCD Q3): 24.9 (14.4;85.4) µV vs 17.1 (11.3;28.2) µV, p=0.06). In a survival analysis where the threshold was set on the third quartile of I TV values, I TV (+) outcome was successfully associated to SCD (Hazard Ratio (CI):3.22 (1.36,7.58) per µV, p=0.008). In conclusion, we show in this work that I TV stratifies CHF patients with AF according to their risk of SCD, with larger I TV associated to lower survival probability.

Assessment of the Effect of Fibrillatory Waves in the Analysis of Spatial Heterogeneity of Ventricular Repolarization

“…However, when applied, they showed limitations [8,9], have been questioned [10] or provided controversial interpretations [9,11,12]. Other parameters such as the one proposed by Martín-Yabra et al focuses on the differences between pairs of T-waves when analysing AF patients under Sinus Rhythm (SR) conditions, but the index used was tailored for chronic heart failure patients only and not tested during AF conditions [13]. Having this in mind, a novel method to quantify the dispersion of myocytes' repolarization times, rooted on van Oosterom's biophysical model [14] of the ECG was derived [15].…”