Prevalence and QT Interval of Early Repolarization in a Hospital-based Population

Background: Early repolarization, which was regarded as benign, has recently been associated with malignant arrhythmia. Despite the newly emerged importance of early repolarization, little is known about prevalence and QT interval of early repolarization. Methods: Early repolarization (defined as an elevation at the junction between QRS complex and ST segment ≥ 0.1 mV in at least 2 leads) was assessed in database containing 308,391 ECGs consisting of 102,065 patients (52,779 males and 49,286 females).Results: A total of 1,775 patients (mean age, 49 ± 30 years) with early repolarization were chosen (1.7% of total population). The prevalence of early repolarization was about 11-times higher in male patients (n = 1,623) than in female patients (n = 152). The prevalence of early repolarization was 1.4% at the age of 0-9 years, peaked (5.0%) at the age of 10-19 years, and progressively decreased with advancing age from 20 to 79 years (3.3, 2.1, 1.6, 0.9, 0.5, and 0.3% at the age of 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70-79 years, respectively). Bazett's QTc interval of patients with early repolarization did not significantly differ among groups of each decade and between genders.Conclusion: The prevalence of early repolarization was both age- and gender-dependent in a hospital-based population. Yet, there was no association between QTc interval and age and between QTc interval and gender