Keywords: Assessment

Voltage criteria a b s t r a c t Background: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a common pathophysiological consequence of hy-pertension. Various voltage (ECG) criteria exist for evaluation of LVH. This study assessed the perfor-mance of 4 commonly used ECG criteria in south-western Nigeria. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study of adult hypertensive subjects. Participants were assessed for LVH using 4 ECG criteria: SokoloweLyon, Araoye code system, Cornell voltage, and GubnereUngerleider criteria. Echocardiography was used to determine the left ventricular mass index for the participants, and a value greater than 125 g/m2 was used as the cut-off point for LVH. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive and negative predictive values were determined for each of the ECG criteria. Results: 90 subjects (45 males, 45 females) participated in the study. The prevalence of LVH by echo-cardiography was 32.2%. The prevalence of LVH by voltage criteria were: 45.6%, 42.2%, 34.4%, 13.3 % by SokoloweLyon, Araoye code system, Cornell, and GubnereUngerleider criteria, respectively. The sensi-tivity and specificity respectively of the ECG criteria were 58.62 % and 60.66 % (SokoloweLyon), 48.28% and 60.65 % (Araoye code system), 51.72 % and 73.77 % (Cornell), and 13.79 % and 86.89 % (Gubner eUngerleider). Conclusion: Out of the 4 ECG criteria, Araoye code system, Cornell and SokoloweLyon criteria compared favorably well with echocardiography and may be used in the initial assessment of LVH in adult hy-pertensive subjects. However, a combination of any of the 3 criteria with GubnereUngerleider criterion will be more clinically useful