Intravital and postmortem diagnostics of myocardial hypertrophy of the left ventricle:identity or convention?

AIM: The aim of the study is to assess the compliance of the results of electrocardiographic (ECG) and echocardiographic diagnostic methods of hypertrophy of left ventricular myocardium (LVH) with the postmortem finding of measurement of left ventricular myocardium mass (LVM).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined the data of intravital study of anthropometric measurements [age, height, weight, body mass index (BMI)], instrumental results [12-lead ECG, EchoCG], as well as the postmortem finding (direct measurement of LVM at autopsy) in 15 patients of general therapy department. While analyzing ECG we studied as conventional ECG criteria for the detection of LVH as well as the author's own criteria based on two models (regression and discriminant analyses), including voltage, sex and age criteria. Echocardiographic diagnostic method used to calculate LVM (according to ASE formula) and left ventricular mass index (LVMI). Postmortem finding of LVM was carried out according to the standard measurement method. According to the absence of the single conventional postmortem finding of measurement of LVH, we considered three different variants of the postmortem finding of LVH: the criterion of K. Bove et al. (CB); the criterion of A.M. Lifshitz, also called ventricular index (VI) and the criterion of P. Casale - the left ventricular mass index at autopsy (LVMI).

RESULTS: Conventional ECG criteria for the detection of LVH showed high specificity (71-100%) using any method of the postmortem finding of measurement, but were characterized by extremely low sensitivity (0-37.5%). Their overall diagnostic accuracy was higher on using K. Bove or A.M. Lifshitz criteria (40-66.7%) and low - on using the criterion of P. Casale (13.3-40%). The author's ECG criteria were less specificity (50-100%) and had higher sensitivity (54-75%), and their diagnostic accuracy remained higher and showed small dependence on the method of the postmortem finding of measurement of LVH (60-66.7%).

CONCLUSION: Usually the ECG criteria to diagnose left ventricular hypertrophy were expectedly showed low sensitivity using any method of the postmortem finding of measurement. Meanwhile, the author's own ECG criteria associated with the most sensitive electrocardiographic characteristics to LVH and sex and age-specific indexes of the examined patients exceeded the conventional ECG criteria in sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy.